Page 89 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Those middle-of-the-night calls
are when we have to be ready to act on a moment’s notice. We usually have equipment rolling out of the yard within the hour.
– George Schalk, rental general manager, Peterson Power Systems
site in case of a power failure. And all those gen- erators need to be serviced and maintained. Every time we go out to do a service or take a customer’s piece of equipment off-line for repair, a rental gen- erator goes along to back it up. We support our service department on basically every project they do to eliminate any risk to the customer.”
Peterson’s Rental Power group functions in two modes: known events during regular business hours and middle-of-the-night emergencies. Sixty percent of the time, rental generators go out on a standby basis as backup for scheduled mainte- nance or repairs. And sometimes they’re providing prime power during planned events for customers who run their entire building project with Peter- son mobile power modules. The other 40 percent are emergencies—like when a transformer blows, half the city is out, and the local public utility calls. “Those middle-of-the-night calls are when we have to be ready to act on a moment’s notice,” says Schalk. “We usually have equipment rolling out of the yard within the hour. It’s a team effort that takes a lot of coordination. And we’re good at it.”
AIR COMPRESSORS
In the early years, Peterson Power’s rental group branched out into air compressors to meet the growing needs of its customers. Today’s portable air compressor market has evolved into much more than just powering jackhammers. “We provide process and instrument air for the local refineries,” says Schalk.“They use air to move product through their facilities, power their instrument controls, and even run pneumatic conveyor belts for coke [coal dust] and other by-products.” Compressed air helps make snow up in Tahoe and drills deep holes for water wells and building foundations. And it still runs smaller pneumatic equipment out on the construction site.
Rental Power has also gone after some very spe- cific applications. “Blowing pigs” in the pipeline
Rental air compressor unit
industry is one. “During construction, they’ll weld the seams and bury the pipeline underground, which causes residue to build up on the inside,” explains Schalk. “So they stuff a giant sponge—or plug wrapped in material—into the pipeline, seal it off, and fill the line with compressed air. That air shoots the plug—or pig—all the way through the line, wicking up all the moisture. They’ll do that several times until it’s clean.” Blowing fiber op- tics is another application, which is widely used in the telecommunications industry. “When they’re running fiber optic lines through a conduit un- derground, they use high-pressure air to push the fiber optics from one side of the street to the other. Instead of pulling it through, they’re blowing the lines through with compressed air.”
And then there’s The Crush. Since Peterson’s ter- ritory is home to the world-famous Napa Valley wine region, it’s a perfect match. It’s also an ideal venue for Peterson’s Rental Power group because it requires two product lines for one application. “Most wineries today use compressed air to crush
CHAPTER 6 | 87