GE Energy Management is showcasing its advanced solutions for efficient power grid management at the ongoing GCC Power 2015, being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The event which kicked off yesterday (November 3) will conclude tomorrow (November 4).

GE is a gold sponsor of the event hosted by Saudi Electricity Company and held under the patronage of the Saudi Ministry of Water & Electricity.

The advanced solutions for efficient network and grid management by GE draw on the power of the Industrial Internet, the meshing of big data and advanced analytics with heavy machinery. These technologies support GE’s power sector partners to achieve impressive leaps in operational efficiency and productivity, said a statement from the company.

Supporting the power sector supply chain from transmission to distribution and conversion, GE Energy Management solutions enable utility providers and energy-intensive industries such as oil and gas, marine, data centres, metals and mining to manage electricity from the point of generation to consumption, it said.

The end-to-end solutions maximise reliability, efficiency, and resiliency by preventing and detecting grid power failures, digitising substations, and reducing outages, it added.

GE Energy Management is integrating protection, control and substation automation with monitoring and diagnostics for transformers. Contributing to a smarter, more reliable and resilient power infrastructure, GE Energy Management solutions complement Saudi Arabia and the region by addressing the increasing demand for power, added the statement.

According to a recent study, GCC power producers must invest over $121 billion from 2015 to 2019 to build new power plants and expand existing units to address growing power demand. This investment must involve $75.9 billion in generation, $15.5 in transmission and $29.6 billion in distribution. This investment calls for advanced technologies that will help accelerate the efficiency of the grids, it said.

Among the products on display are GE’s SecoVac VB2+ Vacuum Circuit Breaker – a compact system that combines mechanism modularity design, vacuum arc control, and the latest circuit breaker and insulation technology; the GE Zenith Automatic Transfer Switch with a double throw, mechanically interlocked contactor mechanism, providing greater protection to critical loads against utility power outages; and the Multilin 850 Feeder Protection System that provides advanced functionality including high performance protection, extensive programmable logic and flexible configuration capabilities, it stated.

GE’s Synchrophasor technologies enable wide area monitoring at the system, based on accurate and precise data, enabling operators to optimise system availability, reliability and stability analysis and operations.

GE will also share its know-how in digital industrial transformation for the power sector at the GCC Power Conference. Mark Adamiak of GE Energy management will discuss ‘Advanced LV Distribution Network Monitoring and Enabled Applications’ and ‘Enhanced Distribution Feeder Fault Location’.
Hisham Bahkali, president and CEO for GE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, said: “With over 80 years of operation in the kingdom, the company has been a pioneering partner in the power sector and today nearly two-thirds of the electricity generated in Saudi Arabia is supported by GE technologies.”

“We work closely with Saudi Electricity Company, one of our valued partners, with a focus on supporting their operations with the latest solutions to enhance operational efficiency across the supply chain – be it production, transmission or distribution,” he said.

“The event offers a strong platform for us to present our digital industrial technologies that not only bring added productivity but also support our customers in predictive maintenance to reduce the downtime and increase efficiency. Through our commitment to work closely with our partners, we will continue to bring innovative solutions developed through localized research to meet the region’s requirements,” he added.

With a presence of over 80 years, three offices and seven facilities, Saudi Arabia accounts for the largest GE workforce in the Middle East with over 1,600 employees driving the healthcare, transportation, power, oil and gas, water and aviation businesses.  – TradeArabia News Service