GE Power looks at issues related to gas turbines

Schenectady

GE Power, based in Schenectady, has technical problems with its state-of-the-art HA gas turbine that forced the owner of the power plant, Exelon Corp., to close a plant near Houston.

The news of the failure of a single blade component in the HA turbine – one of the most important products that General Electric Co. sells to its industrial customers – has scared off Wall Street, which dropped the shares of the company at the end of the week.

"A few weeks ago, there was an event at Colorado Bend's Exelon site, resulting in a problem with an HA turbine component," said Chris Shigas, GE Power spokesperson. . "We expect the same problem to impact the other HA units." We identified the solution and put a plan in place, and we worked proactively with clients on a case-by-case basis to deal with any affected units. unit to be put back into service soon. "

The Exelon power plant at Colorado Bend is located southwest of Houston. Exelon also reportedly shut down a similar power plant in Dallas as a precautionary measure.

The problem with General Electric's HA turbine comes at an inconvenient time for GE and its GE Power unit, which has fired hundreds of unionized executives and workers at its 4,000-strong Schenectady campus.

These layoffs were due to GE Power's poor financial results, caused by overly optimistic revenue forecasts for the global power plant market.

However, the problems with HA, which caused GE stocks to fall earlier this week, are more technical in nature. The HA is not manufactured in Schenectady, specializing in the manufacture of steam turbines and generators, although the HA is supported locally by engineering, sales and other teams.

The Colorado Bend site is a natural gas station owned by Exelon outside of Houston. In 2014, Exelon ordered four of the HA turbines to upgrade the Colorado Bend facility and the second to that of Wolf Hollow outside of Dallas. Upgrades were completed last year.

The HA turbines, plus steam turbines and generators, were designed to add 2,000 megawatts of electrical power to both sites and helped Exelon increase its market share in two fast-growing metropolitan areas in Texas.

Reuters first said it had shut down the four turbines after discovering a problem with a turbine at the Colorado Bend site. The remaining three turbines were closed as a precaution, according to Reuters history.

"GE is an industry leader with its HA gas turbine technology, which recently contributed to two global performance records, and HA gas turbines achieve – and in many cases exceed – their performance targets at each customer site. ", added Shigas. "It is expected that minor adjustments will be made as new technology advances, and we believe that the adjustments we are currently making will further improve the best turbine on the market."

Shigas said the "HA continues to be the fastest growing advanced technology turbine fleet in the world, with over 80 units in order, and has reached more than 175,000 hours of operation. exploitation to date ".

Russell Stokes, CEO of GE Power, spoke about the issues in a post posted on his LinkedIn page on Wednesday. GE employs between 3,500 and 4,000 people in Schenectady, and many of them work at GE Power.

He stated that he had the utmost confidence in the HA turbine, launched two years ago. GE has sold 80 turbines and 30 currently operate power plants around the world.

Stokes said that launching a new product is never without engineering problems that often involve trial and error.

"AH is no exception, for example, there were delays in the completion of the three HA power plants in Pakistan, caused by a combination of factors, some of which were beyond our control. hands, "wrote Stokes.

He added that the company "has identified a problem that should affect our HA units," implying an "oxidation problem" that affects a single blade component.

"Obviously, it was a frustrating development for us and our customers," Stokes wrote. "But we have identified a patch and have been working proactively with HA operators to deal with impacted turbines."

Friday afternoon, GE shares were down 10 cents to 12.36 dollars after falling 13 cents Thursday after the first stories about the problem appeared.