HISTORY / CHALLENGE

MSHS Pacific Power Group dates back to 1958, starting with a focus on diesel engines. MSHS is a full-service partner specializing in power and propulsion systems. This includes engines, generator sets, controls, turbochargers, and engine auxiliary components. Their solutions help customers to achieve greater uptime, productivity, reliability, and efficiency.

They deliver this value through the sales and installation of new systems, parts, 24/7 support, diagnostics, training, engineering, maintenance, repair, and overhaul services. They serve the Marine, Power Generation, Industrial, Defense, and Government segments, and support everything from large maritime transport vessels to yachts and leisure boats, both offshore and on inland waterways. Their customers include some of the largest shipping operators and also cruise lines in the world.

They also support critical assets — combat ships, icebreakers, and defense facilities. They are proud to serve the U.S. Armed Forces and Homeland Security fleets. With over 60 years of experience, they are committed to building enduring partnerships that power and propel the world forward.

MSHS/PPG works closely with its customers to deliver bespoke control systems. The flexible capabilities of Horner APG controls affords MSHS PPG to provide its customers with customized systems and tailor them specifically to each unique application.

The Kashmir is a 132’ luxury yacht that can be found in many locations, but mainly in Florida/Caribbean waters. This was a specific application that required an automation system to handle the transfer between electrical power sources. The yacht is fitted with two generators and a shore power inverter system. Seamless transfer between these three sources of power had to be automated, based on which sources are available, which source is prioritized, and what load is available.

SOLUTION

Originally oufitted with two Horner XLE OCS controllers and SmartStix Remote I/O modules, MSHS PPG upgraded the application to two Horner XL4 Prime controllers, in a redundant configuration. The XL4s are providing logic to start/stop generators on board the yacht, and are also initiating the transfer of power from the on-board generators to shore power, and vice versa. This is very common on luxury yachts so they can turn off the (noisy) engines and have a quiet, vibration-less stay in port for their guests without any exhaust gas from the engines or noise/vibration.

The OCS are also taking care of load-shedding. This means they will make sure that the engines are not overloaded, which could cause a total power outage by tripping some non-essential loads.

The upgrade to Prime was very easy and quick because they could port over 90% of the XLE software into the new XL4 Primes. They added some additional functions and of course used the color screen capabilities. They continued to utilize the SmartStix modules for all field I/O wiring.

MSHS PPG has done other similar yacht applications, but not in a redundant fashion. In those cases they use a single XL4 prime. Available realty is at a premium on these yachts, so the XL4 Prime series is a perfect size. When they can, they use a 7” or 10” version, but often there is not enough space available.

They chose the Horner products because they realized the benefit of the integration of both a PLC controller and an HMI, in the Horner OCS controllers. This allows a close integration between control logic and user interface. Plus, the availability of Horner’s Cscape software, and the technical support that Horner offers, makes Horner a preferred partner for MSHS PPG in these scenarios.

The flexibility and ease of programming of the OCS controls, makes the product versatile, and MSHS PPG is able to use the same hardware in a wide range of applications. Horner is the preferred PLC solution for MSHS PPG in many projects. Using the same software version for all controls, saves them valuable engineering resource time to keep them competitive.

TESTIMONIAL

“Horner controls are flexible and relatively simple to program. The support and training that Horner offers allows our engineers to quickly get a Horner control system up and running.”
~ Peter in ‘t Zandt, Engineering Director, MSHS PPG, Fort Lauderdale, FL