Generator set maintenance

Common practice combines frequent start-up tests, usually monthly, with less frequent load tests every six or twelve months, on top of the fluid, filter and battery checks the manufacturer defines by running hours. The exact interval depends on how the unit is used, how old it is and the conditions of the generator room, which is why it is set during the initial technical audit and written into the preventive plan. The underlying principle does not change: a unit that is not tested regularly does not have maintenance, it has an assumption.

An off-load start confirms the engine runs, not that the set can carry the real demand of the building. A load test makes the generator deliver power, and only then do the faults an off-load start conceals appear: voltage or frequency dips when load is applied, overheating, abnormal exhaust smoke, poor injection or an alternator that fails to regulate. Load testing is the test that genuinely validates backup power, and recording the result shows how the unit behaves from one test to the next.

Diesel in a standby tank can sit for months without being renewed, and it degrades: water condenses inside the tank, sediment settles at the bottom and, with humidity and heat, microbial growth develops and blocks filters and lines. Fuel is therefore a maintenance task in its own right: level checks, draining the water at the bottom of the tank, sediment control and replacement of the fuel filters. A generator that starts and shuts down after a few minutes usually has a fuel problem, not an engine problem.

This is common, particularly after a change of building management or when the previous contractor kept no records. The starting point is the complimentary initial technical audit, which surveys the condition of the generator, the transfer switch, the batteries and the fuel system. That survey feeds the preventive plan and opens the service history, where every intervention is recorded with full traceability. That record of faults, frequencies and costs becomes the basis for replacement decisions. No previous documentation is needed to start.

URBANARC keeps a permanent emergency standby service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a response time of under 2 hours for critical incidents. When backup power fails —the generator will not start, it shuts down, or the automatic transfer does not switch over— the incident is logged in the ticketing system, assigned to an in-house technician and closed with a report. Service is restored first and the cause documented afterwards, so that a recurring fault is corrected in the preventive plan.