Engro signs new digital agreement with GE power to enhance performance

ISLAMABAD: GE Power (NYSE: GE) signed a 10-year agreement with Engro to implement the Asset Performance Management (APM) solution, powered by Predix, at six power plants.

The plants include, the Engro Powergen Qadirpur Ltd. 220 megawatts (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant, Engro 660 MW Thar Power Plant, Kolachi 450 MW Combined Cycle Power Plant and two upcoming wind power generation sites in Pakistan, as well as the GEL 75 MW facility in Nigeria.

The plants are expected to generate up to 1,500 MW together and are equipped with both GE and non-GE power generation equipment, a press release said here on Thursday.

The APM solution will enable Engro to boost the operational reliability of the equipment installed at these facilities.

The agreement was signed by Shahab Qadir, Chief Executive Officer of Engro Powergen Qadirpur Ltd. and Farid Tareen, Vice President of GE’s Power Digital business in the Middle East & Africa, in the presence of senior executives from both companies at GE Digital’s 6th Annual Minds+Machines Conference held in San Francisco on October 25 and 26.

Jahangir Piracha, Senior Vice President of Engro Corporation, said, “We first adopted GE’s Digital Power Plant solutions in 2015 at the 220 MW Engro Powergen Qadirpur Limited Power Plant and have since then seen first-hand how the solutions can help improve site operations.

Today’s agreement is a testament to our belief that Predix and APM can play a vital role in our continuous search to enhance the reliability and reduce the unplanned downtime of our assets.”

Bhanu Shekhar, Chief Digital Officer of GE Power in the Middle East & Africa, said, “Engro has a well-earned reputation as an innovation leader and is defining the future of the power generation industry through the adoption of GE’s digital industrial solutions.

GE is honoured to be a part of Engro’s journey and excited that together we are contributing towards achieving uninterrupted, affordable electricity for residential and commercial use in Pakistan and Nigeria.”

APM, powered by Predix, gives industrial businesses a complete, integrated view of their assets and equipment and can be applied to both GE and non-GE equipment.

Predix is GE’s application development platform for the Industrial Internet and was purpose-built to meet the scale, complexity, speed and security requirements of industry.

Connected machines, equipped with data sensors, collect vast amounts of information into a centralized and secured data platform.

The analysis of this data provides insights to predict and diagnose equipment problems before they happen, thus reducing unplanned downtime.

Today, the APM solution has helped customers improve the reliability of power generating machines, reducing unplanned downtime by up to 5 percent, reducing false positive alerts by up to 75 percent and reducing operations and maintenance costs by up to 25 percent.

Looking across the industry, a report issued by the World Economic Forum in 2016 stated that $1.3 trillion of value can be realized purely by deploying and adopting digital technologies over the next ten years in the electricity sector.

Engro is one of Pakistan’s leading conglomerates with investments in agriculture, fertilizers, foods, energy, petrochemicals and other sectors.

GE has supplied advanced technologies ranging from gas turbines to steam turbines, voltage regulators, boilers and other equipment to Engro since the 1960s.

Most recently in 2016, Engro entered a digital alliance with GE under which it would jointly develop software applications on Predix.

Under this alliance, Engro has also signed a deal with GE to collaborate on the development of digital smelter solutions to improve the aluminium smelting process and contribute to enhanced operational efficiency and productivity.

GE has supported the development of the energy sector in Pakistan for more than 50 years and GE-built technologies can provide up to 25 percent of the electricity generated in the country.

The company continues to play a vital role in the development of key infrastructure projects across Pakistan by bringing advanced innovations and technologies in the energy, transportation and healthcare sectors to the country.