# Time allowed for paralleling to Utility?



## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

I have no idea, but everything in my gut says that if there's a time limit, it's dumb. Why would a utility ever bark about free power?


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

*Call POCO*

It's going to be a local power company regulation if so. X2 on its dumb if so.

We are allowed to tie our co-gen plant into the substation for any length of time. We do have to call our local power company and tell them we are doing this. I am pretty sure their backroom - or whatever its called - makes a note of this.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

I can see the shipping company or the shipyard having their own time limit, or maybe more like a goal. That would make more sense than the utility having a time limit. 

I worked at a place for a spell that got a little bit of a power discount if the utility could start our generators remotely during peak time. They were indoor generators and it would scare the crap out of me sometimes if they just started up when I was near them. Black magic.


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## QMED (Sep 14, 2016)

MDShunk said:


> I can see the shipping company or the shipyard having their own time limit, or maybe more like a goal. That would make more sense than the utility having a time limit.
> 
> I worked at a place for a spell that got a little bit of a power discount if the utility could start our generators remotely during peak time. They were indoor generators and it would scare the crap out of me sometimes if they just started up when I was near them. Black magic.


That's hilarious same thing happened to me the other day when I was working on a generator space heater. Engine next to me started up and I got a nice blast of oil mist from the air starter. 

Yeah there are time limits programmed in. 15 seconds is what we have now. The power management system parallels and unloads but 15 seconds and the generator breaker opens


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

QMED said:


> Is there a rule somewhere that says how long a generator is allowed to parallel to the utility? I'm thinking specifically about ships paralleling to shore power when shutting down onboard generators and transferring load to shore.
> 
> I figured this would be an NESC type of rule?


It depending on the POCO regulations reguarding using ship generators paralleling to the utility source.

some will say unlimited time but some say just for a short time all it depending on the grid set up and what the POCO got on their side. ( most case typically less than a minuite )

but for smaller ships they do have open translation from ship generator to shore source however .,, the larger ship and smaller ships do have sychronous control to handle the correct phase sequice and HZ due most forgein ships do typically use 50 HZ system and others use 60 HZ setting. 
few do have dual setting but that is kinda rare.


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## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

It depends. 
If it’s a civilian ship then it’s as per the yards utility agreements. 
If it’s a gov then it’s based on the needs of the ship.


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## Trailboss (Mar 11, 2018)

Worked on shore based floating fish processing ship, had to run our generators for production because of issues between the state pier and the power company in getting us a bigger feed. That was back in 2007 when diesel prices were very high.


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