posted on July 20, 2018 09:44
When Energy Transfer, a large Cat engine customer, needs expertise, Caterpillar calls on HOLT CAT to work on the large gas compression engines which power the Rover Pipeline. Finished in 2017, the Rover Pipeline transports domestically produced natural gas from processing facilities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the Midwest, Northeast, East Coast, Gulf Coast and Canada. With its original order to finish the pipeline, Energy Transfer deployed 39 Cat gas compression engines in Ohio, Cat’s largest-single project order.
In March one of the Cat GCM34 engines experienced a failure, Ohio Cat called Caterpillar, who called Lee Walker, PSD Technical Service Technician-Longview, for advice.
“It became clear after our conversation,” said Lee, “that we needed to go up there and assist them with the repair. There was a crankshaft failure, and we’d handled two of those. The customer wanted a replacement engine, but with Cat’s advice and our reputation and expertise, Energy Transfer trusted and felt comfortable with HOLT CAT overseeing the warranty work.”
With 150+ of these engines at work in the US, 26 of them are in HOLT’s territory, where Energy Transfer is a customer. As Ohio Cat gears up to handle the technical service, HOLT’s experience is invaluable to them, the customer, and Caterpillar. HOLT is the only dealer with all of the tooling necessary to work on the engine and has two of the most experienced Cat-trained and certified technicians in the country.
That second technician, Ross Hunt, PSD Field Service Tech 6-Longview, is the rest of the success story for the customer and HOLT. “Ross is HOLT’s expert on this engine,” said Lee. “He is our biggest asset in this technical services area,” he added. Without Ross, the repair would not have been a success.
To understand the scale of this engine, the GCM34 weighs over 90 tons – a little more than an empty space shuttle, and the crankshaft is about 21 feet long (longer than a giraffe is tall) and weighs 10 tons. Lee and Ross drove the 16 hours to Ohio with HOLT’s tooling in a trailer and began disassembly on April 2. After a month of repairs, the team successfully started the unit again on May 9.
“There are a few others who can do this kind of work,” said Buck Pate, Division Technical Service Manager-Irving. “However, HOLT’s knowledge and reputation with customers puts us above the rest.”
For more information, contact Buck Pate, HOLT CAT Technical Service Manager, Machine Division, Irving, telephone 972-721-2965.