Johannesburg, South Africa -- 03 February, 2009 - GE Energy announced today that it has signed a multi-million dollar agreement to provide Sasol with reliability and steam path efficiency upgrades of several non-condensing GE steam turbines at the company's Secunda Synfuels facility.
This announcement follows closely the 15-year service agreement announced by GE Energy and Sasol in November 2008, to provide maintenance, monitoring and diagnostics on the two GE Energy Frame 9E gas turbines. The new agreement will provide the equipment and services, including on-site training, necessary to upgrade and improve the turbines, which have each been in operation for approximately close to 30 years of operation.
"GE steam path replacement using modern-era materials, design, and components will significantly reduce the probability of unplanned future outages, resulting in significant turbine life extension and reduced future maintenance expense," said Mark Digby, GE Energy Africa Region Executive.
The steam path efficiency improvement is based on modern technology, high efficiency steam path components (buckets, nozzles, and shaft packing) with a new rotor assembly. The new components not only recover performance degradation in the unit; but also further improve baseline efficiency through the use of modern components.
"Plant owners with older equipment increasingly must look forward to maintaining or replacing equipment to sustain plant performance and output.
"Power plant availability and reliability decreases as plant equipment ages. Steam turbine-upgrading programs, like this one, can drastically reduce the future forced outage rate trend by taking advantage of technology, design, and material improvements developed and applied over the past two to three decades. The result is significant life extension," said Digby.
"As one of South Africa's leaders in energy self-sufficiency, Sasol is to be congratulated on embarking upon this upgrade, which will effectively improve the overall efficiency of their steam usage; thereby increasing its on-site power generation capacity and reducing electricity demand on Eskom. We are very pleased to be working with Sasol to successfully achieve this," Digby concluded.
Sasol is an integrated oil and gas company with substantial chemical interests. Based in South Africa and operating worldwide, Sasol is listed on the NYSE and JSE stock exchanges. Sasol is the leading provider of liquid fuels in South Africa and a major international producer of chemicals.
About GE Energy
GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2007 revenue of $22 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomagination, GE's corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. GE is Imagination at Work. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.ge.com
Kendal Hunt