OREANDA-NEWS. June 11, 2015. 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:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

* Trademark of General Electric Company.