Did you know that the United States annually spends $80 billion due to power outages and disturbances? When an outage occurs, maintaining uptime is critical. Additionally, when it comes to the performance and reliability of your generators during an outage, the state of your fuel is of utmost importance, which is why Foster Fuel’s award-winning team recommends the following steps for ensuring quality fuel:

  • Understand the fuel quality process
  • Know the signs of contamination
  • Test your fuel consistently
  • Contract a reputable fuel vendor

Keep reading to further understand how these steps can have a sizeable impact on your emergency fuel.

Understand the Fuel Quality Process

Maintaining healthy fuel quality is a threefold process. First, your fuel undergoes a series of controlled laboratory tests. These are performed to determine if a contamination has occurred. Second, your fuel will need to be polished. Our experts will clean the fuel of any impurities and restore it to near-original condition. Lastly, our team will recommend certain fuel additives, which will improve fuel quality by doing the following:

  • Preventing future build up
  • Slowing degradation
  • Removing contaminations

Additionally, fuel additives are tailored to your company’s specific needs. Our team will select additives that are disbursed at the right times, so that your fuel is consistently performing at the highest level.

Know the Signs of Contamination

When our team analyzes your fuel, we look for any distinguishing signs that may indicate the need for fuel polishing. Fuel contamination may present itself as any of the following:

  • Build up of water in the fuel
  • Darkening of fuel color
  • Build up of residue in the tank

Even though annual fuel testing can catch early contamination, Foster Fuels recommends that fuel polishing take place at least every three years. This preventative measure can ensure your fuel is recleaned and your fuel additives are replenished as needed, thus successfully avoiding costly problems.

Test Your Fuel Consistently

Many facilities do not consider how often generator fuel should be inspected. Yet, it is vital to consider the duration between fuel testing cycles and the risks of waiting too long. Our fuel quality technicians recommend annual fuel testing.

Annual testing is recommended for two reasons. First, the Joint Commission recently revised its EP standard to reflect the new ASTM fuel quality regulations. Now, the Joint Commission requires accredited institutions to test their fuel annually. Secondly, annual fuel testing is a preventative measure that can reveal early forms of contamination. Remember, it is more cost-effective in the long term to resolve contaminations early on rather than waiting.

Contract a Reputable Fuel Vendor

Your fuel quality is dependent on the quality of those you entrust to handle fuel testing and cleaning. Foster Fuels Mission Critical’s award-winning team offers key benefits in the fuel quality process. Our 96 years of experience allow us to be at the forefront of fuel services nationwide and to be highly trusted by our customers. Here’s what one of them had to say: “…Cleco power has not forgotten the tremendous support we received from your company. While the widespread damage and the number of outages were historic for our company, the response was as well. With your help, we were able to restore power quickly and safely.”—Dilek Samil, President and COO, Cleco Power

Additionally, once you receive the fuel test results, our industry-leading experts will explain the findings and discuss next steps with you in detail. We also possess the equipment and expertise needed to identify and eliminate deviations in fuel quality that may be indicated in the report.

Our team is experienced in handling all of the critical steps in safeguarding your emergency fuel. We understand the importance of uptime and strive to ensure your generator fuel supply is ready in the event of an outage. Choose Foster Fuels Mission Critical as a reliable resource for all of your fuel quality needs—contact one of our representatives today!