GE promoting gas turbine efficiency upgrades

General Electric’s (GE) power sector is offering improvements to gas turbine power plants operating in Thailand to upgrade an ageing energy infrastructure.

Paul Gilmurray, sales leader at GE Power Services, said the Fleet 360 total plant solutions and cross-fleet services can dramatically transform ageing power plants using new technological advancements. The upgrade is expected to increase output, availability, reliability, efficiency and flexibility, while reducing emissions.

GE decided to expand cross-fleet power generation equipment offerings in Thailand to leverage GE’s existing engineering capabilities, said Mr Gilmurray. The company sees an opportunity to give power plants better options to improve performance and efficiency.

Kovit Kantapasara, president and chief executive of GE Thailand and Laos, said GE has the benefit of existing technologies and capabilities.

“We have considerably advanced turbine technology that is highly validated and proven. We have used the lessons learned in applying upgrades,” said Mr Kovit.

“Thailand is an especially important market for our cross-fleet gas plant solutions as there are 71 SGT-800 [Siemens gas turbines] installed in the country.”

GE’s expertise on original equipment manufacturers’ (OEM) turbines can reduce downtime and improve overall operations, he said.

Specifically for the SGT-800 turbine, Mr Kovit said there are 320 such units in operation worldwide — 97 in Asia-Pacific and 71 are installed in Thailand.

He said GE has dedicated sales and engineering experts on original equipment and design to support the local SGT800 fleet. In particular, power upgrades for the SGT-800 gas turbine delivered improvements to power output, fuel efficiency, time between maintenance and life expectancy of parts, compared with OEM.

“Investing in the latest technology upgrades helps plants become more agile and plan for the future,” said Mr Kovit.