In a power plant, keeping things up and running isn’t just an option — it’s a necessity. That’s why plants rely on their suppliers to deliver timely and accurate product replacements.
This August, Dennis Liska, a planner for the DTE Energy Monroe Power Plant, contacted The Macomb Group about replacing a high-pressure Pall filter in the Hydraulic GE EHC system for two of the plant’s four units.
“He had a total of two Pall filters for units one and four that were used to filter the system at about 1500psi,” explains Chuck Raymond, National Sales Manager of The Macomb Group. “These special Pall filters had a side inlet with a top outlet and were originally installed on the GE OEM equipment back in the early ‘70s when the plant was built.”
Dennis knew that if this filter developed a leak, it would take down the system, which in turn would result in a loss of power — and that’s a very bad situation for a power-generating plant to be in.
Digging for answers
The most obvious fix was to replace the filters with original replicas from the factory. Dennis started there, making calls to the Pall factory to figure out how much the replacements would cost and how quickly they could be delivered. Unfortunately, he didn’t get anywhere.
“Dennis was frustrated with the lack of response from Pall and asked The Macomb Group to step in and take over,” Chuck says. “We started working on the Pall filter on August 5, 2014, and we followed up with them about every other day for three weeks until we finally received a price and delivery from the factory. We were shocked by how long and how many different people we had to talk to before we got the pricing; the bigger shock was the price for one unit — we were quoted $16,155 for each Pall filter and a 12-week delivery!”
After speaking to The Macomb Group, Dennis decided to go with Plan B: Find a company that could offer a similar filter, with a faster delivery and a better price. With a little digging, Chuck found a company that was a great fit.
The factory’s response wasn’t appealing — the power plant needed something far more cost-effective and timely. Turning to Plan B
This rep had worked with The Macomb Group in the past, and he was already familiar with the type of system DTE Monroe had. The rep went to the plant and worked with Dennis directly. He was able to suggest a replacement for the Pall filter that could handle the high pressure but was priced well below what Pall quoted and could be delivered in just one week. This solution ended up saving the power plant $27,550 on the two filters!
“With over $13,000 in cost savings per unit we were able to install new piping and the filter for the cost of the old unit,” Chuck says. “The plant will never have to deal with a special design filter again and have the fear of shutting a unit down if the filter were to start leaking.”
A supplier with options
The plant has replaced one unit, along with the piping, and will replace the other units as time allows.
When time and money are on the line and a potential shutdown is around the corner, a power plant needs to be able to rely on a supplier to give them options so they can keep the plant running.
Thankfully, The Macomb Group and its people are always on the lookout for ways to support their customers. As Chuck says, “When Plan A doesn’t fit, we’ll try Plans B, C, and D to get the problem resolved!”
When you’re in a bind, The Macomb Group experts are here for you. Contact us by email at [email protected] or by phone at 888-756-4110. For a complete list of Macomb Group Locations and Numbers, visit our website.
