News
June 2018
MUG Project Manager Retires
After serving as the Project Manager for the MUG since its formation in 2001, Art Killinger is retiring. Mr. Killinger has worked for MPR Associates, Inc. for 50 years and at the age of 75 years, he has finally decided to leave MPR and the MUG. This is a sad time, but also a happy one because of how the MUG has grown from seven members to 23 members. It is Mr. Killinger's hope that the MUG has been helpful in correcting technical issues and it will continue to grow and succeed. Mr. Rob Cryer and Dr. Gary Thompson are now the new Project Manager and will lead the upcoming 2018 MUG Conference.
June 2018 (Revised)
2018 MUG Conference
Announcement
The 2018 MUG Conference will be held the week
of October 1, 2018. It will be at the Panama Marriott Hotel in Panama City, Panama.
The following link
will connect you to the hotel website. There are regular
airline flights all over the world to Panama City. There is no registration fee to
attend the MUG Conference and each MUG member plant may send as many attendees as it
wants. Attendees may also participate in a tour to be arranged with the Conference.
February
2018
Gibraltar Electricity
Authority Joins MUG
MUG is
pleased to announce another new power plant has
joined in 2018. The plant is the newest power plant
on Gibraltar. It consists of six new MAN 14V 51/60
engines; three are spark ignited gas (SG) engines
and three are dual fuel (DF) engines. These engines
are some of MAN Diesel & Turbo's newest
installed units and produce a combined output of 80
MWe.
June 2017
Upcoming 2017 MUG Conference
The next MUG Conference will be held during the week of October 15, 2017. It will be held at the Lago Mar Beach Resort 1700 South Ocean Lane Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316. There is no registration fee to attend the MUG Conference. The following link will connect you to all the information about the conference, registration and hotel room reservations.
Lago Mar Beach Resort
MAN Diesel PrimeServ, also in Fort Lauderdale, will be the conference host and it will be offering engine and turbocharger maintenance training classes at 50% off the regular price one week before the conference. On Monday, October 16th there will be a one-day class on Engine Fluids by Dr. Holger Gehring at no additional charge.
Technical presentations on Tuesday and Thursday will be expected / provided by MUG member plants as well as MAN Diesel & Turbocharger SE and three invited vendors; VULKAN Coupling, TotalShield and Liberty Mutual. Also included in the conference will be a tour of the new West Palm Beach Waste-to-Energy plant on Friday, October 20th.
June 2017
OCEANEX
Joins MUG
OCEANEX, founded in 1990, is an intermodal transportation carrier operating in the Canadian Atlantic provinces. The company owns and operates three large ocean going vessels; two are large roll-on roll-off ships capable of carrying containers, trailers and motor vehicles, and one vessel can transport more than 1,000 twenty-foot containers.
OCEANEX SHIP CONNAIGRA
The two larger ships are powered by MAN Diesel propulsion engines (Models 7L48/60CR and 8L58/64). According to OCEANEX these ships are the only ones with MAN engines operating along the east coast and Canada. OCEANEX is joining the MUG with the expectation that it can benefit from the experience of other MAN Diesel owners even though they are land based power plants.
October 2016
16th MUG
Conference
The MAN Users Group (MUG) met for
three days at the Marriott Beach Resort on Grand Cayman Island September
27th-29th. The MUG Conference was hosted by Caribbean Utilities Company
(CUC) and was kicked off by a welcome message from Mr. Richard Hew,
President/CEO of CUC. In May 2016, CUC had just celebrated 50 years of
exclusive electric power production for the Grand Cayman
Island.
Attendees at the MUG Conference included plant managers and
experienced maintenance personnel from 14 power plants in Central America, South
America and the Caribbean area that own and operate MAN Model 48/60 and Model
32/40 diesel engine generator sets.
In addition, the engine
manufacturer MAN Diesel and Turbo SE from Germany participated, as well as
two service suppliers, Electromotores (large generator refurbishment company)
and Windrock (supplier of engine combustion analysis equipment). MPR
Associates, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia has been the Project Manager for the
MUG since its formation in 2002. The MUG now consists of 21 member plants from
around the world.
Discussions focused on review of recent technical
issues related to MAN diesel engine and generator power plants and the measures
taken to resolve those issues. In addition, the MUG menbers offered
recommendations to improve power plant maintenance practies.
The
meeting was very productive due to the sharing of detailed technical information
among the MUG members present that will improve overall plant performance and
reliability. It also continued to foster more open relations between the
plant personnel and the engine manufacturer.
Finally, the MUG members
completed a tour of the newer MAN model 18 V 48/60 B diesel generators at the
CUC North Sound Station.
May 2016
Another Plant Joins MUG
The Centrais Electricas da Paraiba S.A. (EPASA) is a
privately owned company. It is the largest private thermoelectric power producer in
Brazil. The plant operates a total of 40 MAN Model 32/40 diesel generators with a
total power output of 341 MWe.
November 16, 2015
MUG Conference in 2016
The next MUG
Conference will be held at the Marriott Beach Resort on Grand Cayman Island
during the week of September 26, 2016.
You can make hotel room
reservations by following this link:
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/gcmgc-grand-cayman-marriott-beach-resort/
October 22, 2015
2015 MUG
Conference
A total of 55 participants attended the 2015 MUG
Conference in Paramaribo, Suriname during the week of October 19, 2015. NV
EBS served as host for the conference that included a terrific dinner and
dance at a local restaurant, as well as an interesting tour of its two
diesel power plants.
The other exciting news at the conference was that
the MUG member plants voted unanimously to invite a representative from EDF
Martinique to join the MUG. EDF Martinique is a new MAN power plant on the
French island of Martinique. The plant has twelve (12) Model 18V 48/60B
diesel generator sets producing 220 MWe.
May 22, 2015
15th MUG Conference
Planning
The next MUG
Conference will be held at the Torarica Resort Hotel in Paramaribo, Surinam
during the week of October 19, 2015. Meeting details will be provided to
all MUG Members by email.
October 24, 2014
14th
MUG Conference - Major Success!
MUG Members
Gather at Los Suenos Resort
Fifty-six (56) engineers, operators, maintenance personnel and plant managers from 21 different MAN Diesel Power Plants gathered at the Los Suenos Ocean and Golf Resort in Costa Rica on October 20th - 24th, 2014. This was the 14th MUG Conference since its founding in 2002 (two meetings were held in 2003). The conference was hosted by the ICE Garabito Power Plant and included a plant visit and tour of solar and hydro facilities.
Two potential MUG members were invited to attend; one from MAN diesel power plants on the Azores Islands (Electricidade dos Azores) and another from a plant being built in Nicaragua (Alba Generacion). Assuming both plants decide to become MUG members, that will result in MUG plants having more than 2000 MWe of electrical generating capacity.
Mr. Amjad Raja (HUB Power Company) got the award for greatest distance travelled to attend, coming all the way from Narowal Power Plant in Pakistan. His 225 MWe plant has been a MUG member for several years, but this year was the first time he was able to attend the MUG Conference.
MAN Diesel and Turbo SE was very well represented by seven technical and sales personnel from Augsburg, Germany and several offices in the Central America region. In addition to their technical input, MAN sponsored a terrific BBQ dinner on Wednesday evening. Four vendors / suppliers were invited to make technical presentations on Thursday. Alfa Laval, DUAP and VAF sponsored lunches and breaks during the meeting. CHEVRON also made a technical presentation and hosted a fabulous dinner at the nearby Hotel Villas Caletas. Following dinner, the popular MUG Mushroom Awards were presented to GDF Suez Catava Plant personnel and MAN Diesel Turbocharger personnel.
The MUG Conference in 2015 will be held in Paramaribo, Suriname and hosted by EBS.
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August 4, 2014
MPR 50th ANNIVERSARY!
It is with great pleasure that we announce MPR Associates, the MUG Project Manager, celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding. On this date 50 years ago, the three founders, Mr. Harry Mandil, Mr. Robert Panoff and Mr. Ted Rockwell left the U.S. Navy Reactors Program to form the private consulting company bearing their names. MPR prides itself on engineering excellence and making a difference in all it does.
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April 2, 2014
WELCOME MUG NEWEST MEMBERS
Termopuerto Ltda. de C.V. joined the MUG
effective February 2014. The plant located in Acajutla, El
Salvador has four MAN Model 18V 48/60B diesel generators producing 75 MWe.
ContourGlobal
Bonaire B.V. is the newest member of the MAN User’s Group
(MUG) effective April 1, 2014. The
plant is a 24MWe integrated wind and diesel power plant located
on the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire. The power plant is a baseload
facility that supplies power to the island’s 16,500 inhabitants and is
the sole power generation facility on the island. The plant was commissioned in
August 2010 with MAN Model 9L27/38 diesel generators rated at 2.85
MWe each operating
with both heavy fuel oil and light fuel oil. The wind farm consists of twelve
ENERCON turbines of 900 kWe each and a single additional 330 kWe
turbine. There is also a 3 MWe battery storage backup for grid quality
and stability.
MUG membership continues to grow;
there are now 21 companies belonging to this
group.
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Janaury
14, 2014
2014 MUG Conference Hotel Room Reservation
information
MUG Conference: Los Suenos Marriott Resort and
Golf Hotel in Costa Rica. October 2014
The
next MUG Conference is scheduled for October 20-24, 2014, at the
luxurious Los Suenos Marriott Resort and Golf Hotel in Costa Rica. (See photo
below.)
Make room reservations now at the following Marriott
Hotel link to ensure your $133 nightly room rate.
