Alpha to omega in power generation: Alpha Power Systems expands packaging capabilities; aims to be a one-stop shop aerospace company able to maintain deliveries - Power Generation - Company Profile

Diesel Progress North American Edition, May, 2003 by Mike Brezonick

For much of its 13-year history, Alpha Power Systems has made its reputation as a supplier of highly flexible switchgear and controls for military and commercial applications.

But beginning in late 2001, the Minneapolis-based company has aspired toward much greater things. Acquired at that time by a former executive of Encorp, Alpha Power Systems has since expanded its horizons to incorporate complete design, packaging and testing of total power generation systems for standby and distributed generation (DG) applications.

"When I was at Encorp, we were very aware of Alpha Power Systems," said Stein Haukaas, president and chief executive officer of Alpha Power Systems, who served as senior vice president of corporate and business development at Encorp. "I could see a lot of potential."

So much so that he left Encorp and acquired Alpha Power Systems. His mission at Alpha Power Systems is to turn the company into a major provider of premium DG systems. Haukaas said, "I intend to leverage the years of power generation product design and packaging experience that the staff possesses, and the comprehensive expertise that Alpha Power has acquired in the DG arena, to take the company to the next level.

"Alpha Power had been very successful building switchgear and controls and enclosures. I felt the company was perfectly positioned to combine its component expertise and package it into power module products. When you look at the marketplace for our types of products to find out where the growth opportunities are, it is clear to me that one significant opportunity is in becoming an integrated power module provider, and that's a natural extension for us to make. I believe the trend is moving toward providing turnkey solutions, utilizing the integrated power module concept, either mounted on a trailer or a chassis for mobility, or where it can be placed on a slab in a plug-and-play fashion ready to generate power.

Haukaas added that the ability of quickly being able to gear up to meet the digital economy's growing demand for premium power products and moving up the product food chain to capture additional layers of margins with complete system offerings was what attracted him to Alpha Power Systems. "The company was trying to move toward integrating its component products into systems, but hadn't formulated the strategy on paper or developed a business plan for adding a total system solution capability to its traditional system component offering."

The move toward packaging complete systems is not entirely new to Alpha Power Systems. In its earliest days, before the controls and switchgear side of the business became the most lucrative, Alpha Power provided packaging of generator systems. It was that experience that enabled Alpha Power to gain success in the controls and switchgear arena. "It gave us a broad base of experience," said Dana Sears, chief technology officer at Alpha Power. "We understood the whole package."

Alpha Power Systems' capabilities include complete power systems packaging, standard or paralleling switchgear with controls, controls and control panels, remote communications systems and enclosures. Its customers comprise utilities, private companies and other power generation manufacturers who look to Alpha Power Systems to do the customization that is often too complex to be done in a volume production environment.

"We have across-the-board capabilities to design, build and modify components as well as full system packaging," said David Klick. product design manager at Alpha. "We can accomplish anything that has to do with on-site power generation. We have frill sheet metal capabilities, welding and fabricating. Whatever we need to do, we can do here.

"Even when it's very customized, we want our customers to receive a product that looks like a factory package -- never like an add-on. We integrate our design such that it looks like something that just came off an assembly line."

Alpha Power's new focus has already been paying dividends. The company has racked up a number of significant orders over the last few months. It just completed delivery of a five-unit order of 1 MW gen-sets to DTE Energy and has received an additional five-unit order. The gen-sets, which incorporate Deutz natural gas engines driving Newage alternators, are part of DTE's energy now on-site power program. They are complete units, incorporating engine and generator, Rocore cooling system, and ASCO switchgear and controls, all packaged into a purpose-built, sound-attenuated container.

The company also recently obtained an order for four 150 kW combined heat and power (CLIP) modules. The modules incorporate a Waukesha natural gas gen-set packaged with Alpha Power controls, all of which is then packaged in a custom-designed and built enclosure.

Most recently, APS received an order for five sound-attenuated, walk-in enclosures to house 2 MW gen-sets for the Enrico Fermi nuclear power plant in Detroit. The enclosures are being manufactured at APS' 20,000 sq.ft. Minneapolis facility where the engines and other equipment will be shipped for final assembly and testing.