New Delhi, June 23, 2005 - GE Energy today announced that as part of its India growth strategy, it will be targeting revenues of more than US$1 billion in the country by 2010. GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2004 revenue of $17.3 billion.
John G. Rice, President and CEO of GE Energy, who recently completed a two-day visit to India, reaffirmed GE's commitment to provide support for the restart of the Dabhol Power Project. He said GE Energy is already working with a team from NTPC and BHEL to determine a course of action for restarting and completing the Dabhol Power Project. "It is our view that a fully producing Dabhol plant is in the best interests of the people and we are eager to assist in whatever way we can to bring power to the people of Maharashtra at the earliest."
Mr. Rice added that GE is committed and plans to support India in its Power for All by 2012 and rural electrification initiatives. He said, "India is placing a lot of importance and emphasis on the development of non-conventional energy resources. It is expected that the rural electrification drive will light up as many as 25,000 villages by 2009 and we believe that GE can play a very important role in realizing this goal."
Talking about the opportunities in India, Mr. Rice said, "India is at the beginning of an exciting growth cycle. As state governments begin to accelerate power sector reforms, we expect GE Energy to grow rapidly in India in view of the large investments being planned in the power sector and GE's technological edge."
He added, "Our current focus is primarily on the gas turbine and services businesses. We are partnering with BHEL, to provide technology support and customer training for GE technology heavy-duty gas turbines and we are extending our support to NTPC in their new projects. We also see tremendous potential in emerging areas such as Wind Energy, Nuclear Energy, Hydro Energy and Oil & Gas."
"We have just won a new order to supply GE Energy's wind turbine technology for a 12-megawatt wind farm to be located in the village of Radhapuram in Tamil Nadu, where Surana Industries, a producer of thermo mechanically treated (TMT) bar steel and stainless steel products and components, is turning to wind energy to help power its factories," said Mr. Rice.
GE Energy is supplying eight of its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for the project, which is scheduled for commissioning in July 2005 and is expected to generate approximately 36 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. GE is also providing technical advisory services for the erection and commissioning of the turbines, and operation and maintenance services for five years. The Surana Wind Farm marks GE Energy's second wind project in India. Last year, GE supplied 18 of its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for the Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd. Wind Power Project in Karnataka State, South India. GE's 1.5-megawatt wind turbines are among the most widely tested and used megawatt-class wind turbines in the world, with more than 3,000 installed worldwide.
Mr. Rice said that GE could help India achieve energy security by increasing its nuclear power capability. He said, "Our goal is to equip our customers with the ability to produce energy more reliably and efficiently, more cost effectively and with greater environmental awareness than ever before. Nuclear power is a part of energy development solutions in terms of cost and also energy security."
GE Energy is also looking to actively participate in India's oil and gas sector. Offering a complete range of solutions for the oil and gas Industry, GE is a long-time global leader in gas compression and turbo generation products.
"We are particularly eager to showcase cleaner coal technology to meet India's power needs through our Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) technology," said Mr. Rice. "After a cleaning process, IGCC technology converts heavy fuels into high-value fuel for gas turbines. We see a great potential for its use in India where low-cost opportunity feedstocks such as coal, heavy oils and pet coke are the fuels of choice.".
GE has been active in IGCC for nearly 30 years, and has supplied gas turbines for 60% of the world's operating IGCC plants. Recently, the company purchased ChevronTexaco's gasification technology to expand its offerings for the IGCC industry. GE also has an alliance with Bechtel to develop a standard, commercial offering, or reference plant design, for optimized IGCC plants.
IGCC technology produces electricity from lower cost fuels such as coal while meeting strict environmental regulations. The technology uses less water and produces fewer emissions than a conventional coal-fired plant with currently required pollution equipment. Another benefit is the potential to remove mercury and carbon dioxide upstream of the combustion process at a lower cost than conventional plants.
Developing hydropower stations is a significant part of India's sustainable energy initiative. India is endowed with economically viable hydro potential assessed to be about 84,000 MW at 60% load factor (148,700 MW installed capacity). In addition, 6,780 MW of installed capacity from small, mini and micro hydel schemes have been assessed. However, only 21% of the potential has been harnessed so far.
Mr. Rice said, "We are very encouraged by the initiatives taken by the government for India's hydro energy sector. We would like to be a major contributor in the growth of the country's hydro power sector by leveraging our global leadership in the supply of hydro turbines, generators and related electro-mechanical equipment for the hydropower production industry." GE Energy provides complete water-to-wire solutions for new hydroelectric plants and refurbishment and service for existing plants.
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GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2004 revenue of $17.3 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, transmission and distribution, distributed power and energy rental industries.
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