While the City of Philadelphia is patting itself on the back for hosting a highly successful Republican National Convention, Giles & Ransome Inc., Bensalem, PA, is breathing a sigh of relief that no one in the country noticed its contribution to the convention. After all, no one thinks about the electricity and air conditioning unless they’re not working.
With more than 30,000 delegates and attendees visiting Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention, Peco Energy Co. and the many organizations throwing parties for the delegates left no room for power outages.
“We had zero tolerance for any power interruption at the Republican National Convention because of the spotlight that it placed on the City of Philadelphia,” said Terry Donnelly, Peco energy operations director, City of Philadelphia. “Giles & Ransome supplied for us a package of on-site generation that helps us ensure that objective.”
Peco rented 23,000 kW of generation for use at the First Union Center, the site of this year’s Republican National Convention from Ransome Engine, a division of Giles & Ransome Inc. Ransome Engine also provided Peco with four mobile generators for use in Center City Philadelphia.
“The generators served two purposes,” Donnelly explained. “They provided us a redundancy for on-site power. Also, if we have extreme heat without any emergency at the First Union Complex, the generators can be used to give the local grid a boost to insure reliability.”
This isn’t the first time Peco has worked with Ransome Engine, according to Donnelly.
“They’re a preferred supplier of portable generators for us, mainly when responding to emergencies,” he said. “In this case we were able to work together in the design and installation stage. It was somewhat different than our usual work practices.
“Ransome Engine is a local vendor, so the ability to respond quickly in times of emergency as well as the ability to coordinate with the company on a project like this is what proves valuable to us. It’s a matter of not only cost and a solid working relationship, but also geographical proximity.”
Ransome Engine also provided 900 tons of supplemental air conditioning to the Pennsylvania Convention Center during PoliticalFest, a party that ran in conjunction with the RNC in Philadelphia.
The air conditioning equipment Ransome Engine provided is manufactured by York International Corp., PA.
The two commercial-sized air conditioners Ransome Engine provided for PoliticalFest 2000 were air-cooled chillers with reciprocating compressors.
They were electrically driven and used existing power from the Center. PoliticalFest was billed as the “world’s fair” of politics celebrating history, government and the path to the presidency.
Giles and Ransome really showed its colors when a Pittsburgh, PA-based entertainment company requested power for a convention party at the Italian Market at 9th and Washington streets in Philadelphia. When officials from Ransome Engine found out that the party’s organizers had other construction equipment needs, it called on other divisions of Giles & Ransome. Ransome Rents provided four 25 kW towable generators and two Genie 45-ft. articulated boom lifts while Ransome Lift supplied a Caterpillar GP30, 6,000-lb. pneumatic forklift.
“The advantage of having a relationship with a full-line Caterpillar dealer is that we can meet the power generation, material handling and rental service needs for any project, from providing equipment and technical support to the Republican National Convention itself to a small delegate party at Philadelphia’s Italian market,” explained Giles & Ransome President Wayne Bromley.
Ransome Engine also supplied 180 tons of supplemental cooling for a Texas barbecue at the Philadelphia National Guard Armory on the Drexel University campus.
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