Resistive load banks from 45 kW to 1,000 kW, 480 V three-phase, automatic or manual — for commissioning a new installation, proving a standby set still carries the building, and burning off what light running leaves behind.
A new set leaves the factory with a test certificate and arrives on a site that is nothing like the test cell. Stepping it up to full output in place is what proves the installation — the cooling, the exhaust, the fuel supply and the controls together, before anyone signs for it.
Standby generation earns its keep on the day it runs, and that is a poor time to discover it cannot hold rated load. Testing against a bank puts the set through the duty it is kept for, without taking the building's supply away to do it.
A diesel loaded well below its rating for long enough never gets hot enough to burn its fuel cleanly, and the residue collects in the exhaust. An hour at proper load is the standard fix, and it is cheaper than the service call that follows ignoring it.
Read live from the rental fleet. Load steps, duty cycle and enclosure details are on each unit page — the step sizes matter more than the headline rating when the test has to follow a commissioning schedule.
Testing a set you are also renting? The full rental catalogue covers the generators, and power distribution rentals covers what connects the two.
A test at half load proves half a generator. The bank has to be able to take the set to its nameplate, which is why the fleet runs from 45 kW up to 1,000 kW rather than stopping at a convenient middle.
Commissioning usually calls for load applied in stages — 25, 50, 75, 100 per cent — and held at each. The step sizes a bank offers decide whether it can follow that schedule, and they are published on every unit page for that reason.
Every bank in this fleet is resistive: it loads the set in kilowatts at unity power factor, which is what ordinary acceptance and periodic testing asks for. A specification calling for reactive load at a stated power factor needs different equipment — worth raising at the quote rather than on test day.
Voltage, the connection point and the cable run. Cables and whip ends come with some of the smaller units, and anything else the connection needs can be quoted alongside. Send a photo of the termination if you are unsure.
Continuous load, redundancy that has to be demonstrated rather than assumed, and acceptance testing before anything live is put behind it.
Data centre power →The annual proof that the set behind a plant, a building or a care facility still does what it was installed to do, with the result written down.
Power systems →Proving the permanent installation at handover, usually while the site is still on temporary power itself.
Construction rentals →Standby units and remote sites running far below rating, where a scheduled load bank run is maintenance rather than a repair.
Oilfield production →Because a set that has never carried load has never been proven. Starting it monthly shows the engine runs; it does not show the alternator, the controls, the cooling and the fuel system holding up at full output for hours, which is the only thing that matters on the day the power goes out. A load bank creates that load on demand, without waiting for an outage or borrowing the building's own.
Enough to take the set to its rating — testing at half load proves half a generator. The rental fleet runs from 45 kW to 1,000 kW, and where a single bank does not cover the set, ask about combining units. Tell us the nameplate rating and the voltage and the right bank gets matched to it.
Resistive, across the fleet. That covers ordinary generator acceptance and periodic testing, which is the large majority of load bank work. If your specification calls for reactive testing at a stated power factor, say so at the quote — that is a different machine and it is better established before it is needed than on site.
It is the usual remedy. A diesel that has spent months lightly loaded never reaches temperature, and unburned fuel collects in the exhaust. Running it against a load bank at proper output burns that residue off. If the set is lightly loaded by design rather than by accident, worth treating the load bank as a scheduled item rather than a rescue.
The bank and the controls for stepping load up and down through the test. Cables and whip ends are available with the smaller units, and the same enquiry can cover the distribution to connect it. Say what the test is proving and what the connection point looks like, and the whole setup gets quoted together.
Quoted per job, like the rest of the fleet. Rating, term and whether the test is a single afternoon or a long commissioning programme all move it. Sizing advice costs nothing and the quote comes in writing.
The set's rating and voltage, the schedule the test has to follow, and where it connects. That is enough to put the right bank on a truck and quote it in writing.
