Case Histories

•The Reliant Story
•
33 IS NOT OLD..........AT LEAST NOT IF YOU ARE
AN SCI UPS SYSTEM!

This case study contains three separate, yet interconnected stories.

The First story is about RELIANT ENERGY in Avon Lake, Ohio. Reliant Energy has undergone several name changes over the years. For many, many years, it was known as The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI). Then, for a brief period it was under the Ohio Edison/Toledo Edison umbrella; subsequently it was known as First Energy and Orion Power. Now, of course, it is known as RELIANT ENERGY.

Reliant Energy is headquartered in Houston, Texas, but has plants all over the United States. The facility in Avon Lake, OH is a fossil and gas burning plant. Since 1973, an SCI Inverter has been installed at the East Gate entrance to the building. This 3 kVA “Low Boy”, as it is called, was manufactured at SCI’s second facility on Oakland Park Ave. in Columbus, OH when SCI was only about 10 years old. Even then however, SCI was already a leading player in the Industrial UPS Market.

Joe Rada, a 33 year veteran employee, is a great source of knowledge about the plant and the SCI equipment there. This unit, in service and still working fine in 2006, supplied power for the 30 MW unit that carries a black load, and/or a peaking system. However, as part of the upgrades being done to comply with the Clean Air Act, this 3 kVA unit was replaced with a new 7.5 kVA system. The First Energy facility in Eastlake, OH, had already installed a 7.5 kVA system, and the Avon Lake plant decided it was time to do a similar replacement.

The inside of the door of the 3kVA inverter contains the original manufacturing tag and the name of the person who assembled this unit....Warren Wright - who is still with SCI (over 40 years now!).

Delta Instrumentation, AMETEK Solidstate Controls’ sales representative in Richfield, Ohio, was instrumental in implementing this change at the Avon Lake plant. Delta Instrumentation was started in 1990, and has been with SCI since mid-1998. Currently, Delta represents several other AMETEK companies: they are Power Instruments, Panalarm and Gutton Stratham. All of these companies are part of the AMETEK Power Instrument Group. Tom has been associated with Rochester Instruments since 1980 and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our group.

The third part of this case study involves several new SCI employees as well as an experienced one. While at the factory in Columbus for hands-on training, two of these employees, representing Mexico and Brazil, took advantage of the opportunity to visit a power plant site and see first hand how SCI’s products are applied and installed, and to talk with clients about their experiences with SCI’s equipment, and what they need to meet their power protection requirements. David Sciandra, SCI’s Eastern Regional Sales Manager accompanied them. David has been with SCI since 1996. He became Eastern Regional Manager in 2001, and has seen his region grow. “I have 12 Sales Reps in my region”, stated David, “and we have been busy the last six months with FGD/SCR projects that fossil plants are required to do to comply with the Clean Air Act. This has created a need to either add more equipment for additional controls or upgrade the UPS systems they already have.