On Sunday March 29, Plug Power was in attendance at the Grand Opening of Central Grocers’ new distribution facility in Joliet, Illinois. Plug Power has shipped 140 Class 3 GenDrive^TM power units (115 GD-3M24-390 and 25 GD-3M24-310F “Freezer” units). The brand new distribution center is a $90 million facility, and is just under one million square feet. It is the first grocery warehouse of its kind in the world, where all goods will be handled with fuel cell powered lift trucks. The pallet trucks will be joined by 80 Class 2 GenDrive power units to be supplied by Plug Power by early 2010.

The hydrogen will be supplied by Air Products, is delivered in liquid form, and is pumped into the trucks by operators at one of three dispensers located throughout the DC. The initial fuelings were performed last week.

 

 

Plug Power delivered and commissioned all 140 units on time with special accolades to the operations, service and engineering teams. Cross-functional team efforts  ensure product reliability, successful operation and allow Central Grocers to demonstrate improved productivity with GenDrive power units.

 

The inaugural “Train the Trainer” session was conducted in Saturday March 28 with Central Grocers’ supervisors and management.

 

The first units will go into regular operation on Sunday April 5. The dry and perishable sides of the DC to be up and running in April and the freezers will come completely on line in May.

 

 

Congratulations to all those who had a hand in this momentous accomplishment.