Find a lubricant partner to deliver better oil life and consolidate United Utilities’ lubricant stock to simplify the oil procurement process.

Engine availability is key to running an effective stationary gas engine fleet. Greater availability of the engines translates to increased power generation for United Utilities.

With this in mind, if a supplier can provide a solution whereby a stationary gas engine oil will extend the oil drain interval, United Utilities (and its customers) will directly benefit.

The fewer oil changes that are required, the less downtime is seen, coupled with a reduction in the volume of oil purchased per year. Additionally, when the cost of engineers’ time on-site and waste oil is factored in, this demonstrates clear cost savings (reduction in Total Cost of Ownership) for United Utilities.

"It's nerve-wracking when you are running low on oil and you don't know if it's going to get to the site. Now, when we order, we are safe in the knowledge that it will arrive when needed." – Andy Parker Energy Generation Operations & Maintenance Manager.

The United Utilities fleet consists of 34 predominantly INNIO Jenbacher stationary gas engines across 17 sites. Prior to working with Petro-Canada Lubricants, the company had purchased stationary gas engine oil from different suppliers, based on what the engines were originally filled with.

This added complexity to the purchasing process managed by the field service engineers, who each look after multiple sites. They would need to liaise with different suppliers to ensure each site had enough of the right lubricant to continue running. United Utilities found that some suppliers were also finding it difficult to deliver the appropriate product at the relevant site on time, running the risk of engines being unable to run.

United Utilities challenged HF Sinclair to deliver a longer oil life and simplify a complicated and inefficient system of purchasing engine oil.

A consolidated, high-performance range of oils, carefully selected for each engine, delivered simply and efficiently.

Petro-Canada Lubricants’ SENTRON^TM line of stationary gas engine oils is a family of high-performance, long-life engine oils used for stationary gas engines and compressors in a wide variety of applications with a key focus on power generation and gas compression.

Over a six-month period, United Utilities conducted a trial of Petro-Canada Lubricants’ SENTRON^TM CG 40 at its site in Blackburn, U.K., to test the oil against the incumbent competitor oils.

Following this customer acceptance trial, United Utilities was satisfied with the positive results achieved on the Blackburn site and asked Petro-Canada Lubricants’ technical team to review the assets and recommend the appropriate SENTRON^TM products across the fleet. The experienced technical team recognized the need for more specialized products around some of the sites, an example being the use of the low-ash SENTRON^TM CG 40 Plus at the Liverpool site due to the INNIO Jenbacher 4 Series engine on-site.

To date United Utilities has transferred 15 of its 17 sites over to Petro-Canada Lubricants SENTRON^TM stationary gas engine oil. It currently uses three products across its fleet, namely SENTRON^TM CG 40, SENTRON^TM CG 40 Plus and SENTRON^TM LD 5000. With the unique approval of the medium-ash SENTRON^TM CG 40 for use in INNIO Jenbacher Type 4B & 4C engines, United Utilities will be able to further reduce complexity and change the Liverpool site to this product in due course.

• Oil drain intervals extended
• Single supplier of stationary gas engine oils, reducing complexity
• Reduction in number of products, providing consolidation
• Technical service support with the expertise you need

Since switching to SENTRON^TM stationary gas engine oils, United Utilities has experienced an impressive increase in its engines’ oil drain intervals compared to the previous incumbent competitor products used across the fleet.

Field service engineers at the Bolton and Burnley sites recorded that the engine running time was significantly extended by using SENTRON^TM CG 40 due to its superior oil life. This impact was repeated across the fleet as more sites transferred to the Petro-Canada Lubricants SENTRON^TM stationary gas engine oils.

Partnering with Petro-Canada Lubricants enabled United Utilities to consolidate its oil supplier, meaning only having to deal with one company that was able to offer a consolidated, efficient solution.

In practice, this simplified the purchasing process for field service engineers who had previously had to record the oil levels for each engine and contact a range of different suppliers to suit the engine being operated.

Working with a single oil supplier enabled United Utilities to build a close working relationship with Petro-Canada Lubricants’ Technical Services team, who offered comprehensive lubricant advice, set up used oil analysis reporting and addressed any questions from the sites.

Since working with Petro-Canada Lubricants, United Utilities has been able to trust that its engines will run longer between oil changes and that the team will receive the right oil on time to keep its fleet operating. Petro-Canada Lubricants has made the management of United Utilities’ oil an easier process, ultimately offering the company peace of mind that it can pass its savings on to the customer.