A global resort hotel chain on the island of Maui has signed a 2-MW factory protection plan (FPP).
The FPP, offered by Capstone Turbine Corporation, is a comprehensive maintenance program designed to give financial peace of mind to customers by setting the cost at a fixed rate for both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for the life of the microturbine product. The FPP contract enables customers to have predictable and stable maintenance costs over the life of the equipment and protects the users from unscheduled maintenance expenditures.
“We anticipate accelerated adoption of our microturbines at resort hotels in island locations like Hawaii that are subjected to inclement weather events such as hurricanes, typhoons or tropical storms. These weather events can subsequently result in grid outages which are also driving the adoption of our industry-leading FPPs to guarantee high performance and availability of these critical onsite power generation assets,” said Jeff Foster, Capstone’s Senior Vice President of Customer Service and Quality.
Total FPP long-term contract coverage for Capstone units operating in Hawaii is now 74% as a result of the latest multi-megawatt FPP contract.
Resorts across the US are taking other measures to combat not only grid outages, but energy usage as a whole. This month, Cannon Mountain Ski Area in New Hampshire announced it has installed energy efficiency upgrades expected to help reduce energy consumption at the ski area by 30%, while significantly increasing snowmaking capabilities for less cost. The ski resort recently completed a $5.1 million energy efficiency upgrade in partnership with Ameresco, an energy efficiency and renewable energy company.
And in May of this year, MGM Resorts was recognized for “excellence and leadership in the use of energy management and information systems to reduce energy costs and improve building performance” by the Better Buildings program from the DOE. While MGM did not focus on its energy efforts in order to win awards, being recognized “validates what we’re doing, and it also compares us to other big participants in the program, as well,” said Chris Magee, the company’s VP of sustainable facilities in its Corporate Sustainability Division.
