Emergency generators Issues Beyond Palo Alto, posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 18, 2010 at 10:04 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
All those generators that kept vital systems alive may be headed for the junk heap. ARB has decided to impose the same emission restrictions on them as on continual running engines. The next outage, Stanford Hospital might ba a lot quieter.
Posted by don, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Feb 19, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Walter, you have to be kidding. The ARB makes decisions on the safety of Palo Alto? Whatever happened to the City Manager and City Council's responsibilities in that area. I knew we've had a dysfunctional council in the past and was hoping this new one would be better. It's still early, but let's see with what they do with this one
Posted by petercarp, a resident of Atherton, on Feb 20, 2010 at 6:36 am petercarp is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
My research finds the following:
"All internal combustion engines (ICEs) greater than 50 brake horsepower (bhp) and gas turbines greater than 2,975,000 British thermal units (Btu) per hour are required to obtain a permit to construct from the AQMD prior to installation of the engines at a site. Any ICEs less than 50 bhp or turbines less than 2,975,000 Btu per hour are exempt from permit requirements, unless they are operated on landfill gas.
What is considered an emergency backup generator by the AQMD?
A standby ICE or turbine for non-utility power generation that does not operate more than 200 hours a year and is only operated in the event of an emergency power failure or for routine testing and maintenance is considered an emergency backup generator for power generation."
This would suggest that the ARB's current regulations would NOT impact the type of emergency generation that took place during the recent Palo Alto power outage either because they are less than 50 BHP or were used less than 200 hours in a year.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 20, 2010 at 9:51 am Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
The ones I am concerned about, the 3 at Stanford Hospital, are way bigger than that. ARB has a record of moving the line with sunsets, limitation on permissible repairs and other annoyances. 50 HP ain't much of a genset.
ARB got rid of 95% of controllable pollution long ago, but rather than go back to a monitoring agency, long after the low hanging fruit was gone, they kept tightening restrictions with less and less benefit. Hey, if they were serious about reducing pollution, they would ban toll collection, one of the biggest traffic congestion causes.
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All those generators that kept vital systems alive may be headed for the junk heap. ARB has decided to impose the same emission restrictions on them as on continual running engines. The next outage, Stanford Hospital might ba a lot quieter.
