With Europe and other key regions of the world undergoing a major shift
in how electricity is produced by an increasingly diverse array of
sources—from natural gas to renewables—this transformation toward a
lower carbon environment is posing significant challenges for countries
seeking to balance energy security and competitiveness. However, the
shift also is creating opportunities for investing in innovative energy
technologies that can help bring about more sustainable economic growth
and a higher standard of living.
GE’s (NYSE: GE) portfolio of advanced energy technologies is expected to
play a vital role in supporting the investment goals of the World
Economic Forum’s “Future of Electricity” initiative. A January 2015 report
issued by the World Economic Forum estimates that members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will need
to invest more than $7.6 trillion over the next 25 years to meet their
energy policy goals, further reduce emissions and create a more
sustainable system for producing electricity from renewables and cleaner
fuels such as natural gas.
GE is participating in this week’s POWER-GEN
Europe 2015 trade conference in Amsterdam to showcase several
reference projects that illustrate how utilities and industrial
facilities can use GE’s high-efficiency power generation systems and
software solutions to help meet their production targets while achieving
their respective national and regional energy policy goals.
“The electricity sector is undergoing significant changes, driven by
technological developments and the need to decarbonize energy
production,” said Roland Teixeira, Region Executive & Country CEO, GE
Benelux. “The projects we are highlighting at POWER-GEN Europe
demonstrate how our customers can get the fastest return on their
investments by upgrading the energy efficiency of their existing
facilities. This includes installing our high-efficiency generation
equipment and harnessing the power of Big Data to give operators greater
real-time visibility into the condition of their equipment, allowing
them to reduce their costs and environmental footprints.”
Case in point: a 1 percent efficiency improvement in the global
gas-fired power plant fleet could yield $66 billion in savings in fuel
consumption.
GE’s projects being announced POWER-GEN Europe include:
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The world’s first deployment of GE’s Reliability Excellence software
solution at the Whitegate Power Station, a 445-megawatt gas
combined-cycle power plant in County Cork, Ireland. Reliability
Excellence is GE Power Generation Service’s new advanced software
solution that taps into industrial-scale data analytics to
predictively identify operational issues before they occur.
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GE’s Distributed Power business is formally
introducing its myPlant* 2.0 Beta platform powered by Predix*,
an asset performance management solution from GE. The introduction of
myPlant 2.0 expands the choice of Industrial Internet technologies
that can help industrial operators improve the real-time remote
monitoring of their production facilities.
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GE’s Distributed Power also is announcing that Prominent
Growers Association, a leading commercial
tomato greenhouse growers collective in the Netherlands, will
serve as the pilot customer to showcase how GE’s
myPlant* 2.0 solution can increase the performance and
efficiency of 50 Jenbacher gas engine units installed at 36 high-tech
greenhouse facilities.
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French utility ENGIE recently turned to GE’s Power Generation Services
business to increase the responsiveness and availability of its
Montoir de Bretagne combined cycle power plant in western France to
become more responsive to changing grid demands and boost
competitiveness. GE’s team installed its OpFlex Steam Turbine Agility
software solution to reduce the plant’s startup times.
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GE’s Power Generation Services business was recently awarded a 16-year
contractual service agreement (CSA) by Russian energy company OJSC
“Generating Company” for the new Kazanskaya CHP-2 combined-cycle gas
power plant in Kazan in the Russian region of Tatarstan. GE was
awarded the CSA to help ensure the long-term availability of the power
plant’s GE-supplied gas turbines to meet the industrialized area’s
strong energy demands.
“By making forward-thinking energy technology investments in their
existing facilities to make them more energy efficient and reliable, our
utility and industrial customers are able to create more sustainable
power and products for their customers and support their region,” said
Teixeira.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t
and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings
together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can.
In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is
inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the
world. www.ge.com
About GE Power & Water
GE Power & Water provides customers with a broad array of power
generation, energy delivery and water process technologies to solve
their challenges locally. Power & Water works in all areas of the energy
industry including renewable resources such as wind and solar; biogas
and alternative fuels; and coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy.
The business also develops advanced technologies to help solve the
world’s most complex challenges related to water availability and
quality. Power & Water’s six business units include Distributed Power,
Nuclear Energy, Power Generation Products, Power Generation Services,
Renewable Energy and Water & Process Technologies. Headquartered in
Schenectady, N.Y., Power & Water is GE’s largest industrial business.
Follow GE Power & Water on Twitter @GE_PowerWater
and on LinkedIn.
* Trademark of General Electric Company.
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