Industrial hire starts where a tow behind set stops, roughly 250 kW and up to a couple of megawatts, and the machine arrives on a lowboy rather than a hitch. Weekly rates for a 250 kW set commonly land between $1,200 and $2,500. What decides the real bill is the switchgear, the cable and the fuel around it.
Where industrial actually starts
Above roughly 250 kW, sets are skid mounted or containerised, arrive by lowboy and need a crane or a forklift with the reach to place them. Above about a megawatt, hire houses parallel two or more sets instead of shipping one giant machine, which also gives you redundancy if one unit drops out mid job.
Transfer, not extension leads
A set feeding a building connects through a transfer switch or a documented manual changeover, wired by a licensed electrician, so the generator can never backfeed the utility. Hire houses rent the switch, the tails and the docking station alongside the set. Book the electrician for the same day the machine lands, not the day after.
Fuel is the line that grows
A base tank holds a shift or a day at load on a large set, so a long hire means a day tank, a bulk tank or a scheduled fuel truck. Ask who fills it, how bunding and spill containment are handled, and whether fuel is billed at delivered cost. On a multi week hire, fuel routinely outruns the rental line.
Planned outage or emergency standby
A planned tie in is quoted with a survey, a load list and often a load bank test before the real switchover. An emergency callout after a storm is priced on what is left on the yard and how far it has to travel. If your site cannot go dark, a standing contract with a hire house is worth more than a phone number.
Questions people ask about industrial generator rental
What size industrial generator do I need?
Size it on the load list and on the largest motor that starts across the line, because starting current is several times running current. A hire house will run the numbers from an equipment schedule if you send one. Undersizing shows up as lights dipping and contactors dropping out, not as a clean failure.
Do I need a permit to run one?
Often yes for a long hire. Engine emissions, exhaust height, noise limits and fuel storage are all locally regulated, and some air districts require registration above a size or a run hour threshold. Ask the hire house what its sets are certified to and check with the local authority before a job of any length.
How is an industrial hire priced?
By the week and the month far more often than by the day, because mobilisation and connection are the same work whether you keep it for two days or twenty. Expect separate lines for transport, cable and distribution, the transfer switch, fuel and any operator or service visits.
Can one set feed my whole building?
It can if it is sized to the building's actual demand rather than its service rating, which is usually much larger. Most temporary schemes feed selected panels instead: chillers, lifts, life safety systems and the servers, with the rest left off. That keeps the set, the cable and the fuel bill sane.