CARIBBEAN NORTHERN LIGHTS DEALER CONFERENCE 20-21 AUG 2013

Northern Lights and Caribbean Distributor, Parts & Power, are holding a Caribbean Dealer Conference on 20 & 21 August. Representatives from Dockyard Electric in Trinidad, Grenada Marine and Palm Tree Marine in Grenada, Marintek in St. Lucia, Dominica Marine Center in Dominica, Seagull Services and Marine Power Service in Antigua, Electec in St. Maarten, All Points Marine and Plan B in St. Thomas, and Parts & Power in Tortola will be in attendance.
The two day Conference is an opportunity for the Caribbean Northern Lights dealers to get together and discuss how they can improve customer satisfaction with Northern Lights generators, Lugger propulsion engines and Technicold Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Load Bank products.  New products that are being launched currently, and in the near future, will be unveiled.  Feedback from customers’ experience in the field will be discussed, and conveyed to Design and Engineering Teams.  It will be a unique opportunity to translate information on customers’ comments and suggestions into modifications and changes in the Product lines.  EPA and European emissions law changes, future regulations, and how those will force changes to the products in next few years, will be discussed.  Service topics will be shared from the Factory to Dealers and Dealers back to the Factory.
The constantly evolving Technicold Product Line will be introduced to many of the Caribbean dealers in attendance.  Technicold’s high quality stainless steel Air Conditioning products will be displayed and demonstrated with particular attention paid to the features and benefits of the product.  Dealers will also be introduced to Technicold s/s Refrigeration products and the Automatic Load Banks.  Technicold Load Banks are fresh water cooled, designed to utilize a small footprint for installations, are standard with Digital controllers, and are offered with PLC full color LCD screen as an option. These systems allow the vessel to manage loading of generators to ensure better engine performance.
We will be introducing the new Northern Lights HybriGen system. HybriGen is the result of the collaboration between Northern Lights and BAE systems, a worldwide leader defence technologies, electronics and military equipment. HybriGen is the first truly variable speed power generation system which can be used for ships service AC power, and as an AC propulsion system simultaneously. HybriGen  is a completely load dependent system so the engine only runs at the speed required to make the power that the vessel needs and, when used in conjunction with a battery storage system the engine will shut down once the batteries are charged allowing the vessel to run quietly and cleanly on batteries only. 
Unlike others in the market, the HybriGen system is the only one on the market which is a completely engineered, tested and commercially fielded system in the world with over 4000 operating in major city busses worldwide every day.
Previous Caribbean Dealer Meetings have produced changes such as changes to s/w pumps from lip to mechanical ceramic seals and hex head as well as slotted screws on cover plates; introduction of stainless steel exhaust elbows to replace cast iron ones; addition of coolant recovery bottles, reduction in overall package size, the change to all s/s bolts and screws on the generator set and many others.  Customer feedback and dealer ideas on how to make the Products more customer-friendly, more reliable, and longer lived will, once again, be translated into product improvements and changes.
Stay tuned for updates on the ideas and developments coming from the Conference.