HANNOVER, GERMANY---November 17, 2011--- GE (NYSE: GE) today announced a new service offering, the Flex Overhaul, for its Jenbacher gas engines. The Flex Overhaul reservation agreement extends the operating hours of GE's J312 gas engine to 80,000, up from 60,000 operating hours. GE made the announcement at Agritechnica, one of the world's largest exhibitions for agricultural machinery and equipment, currently taking place in Hannover, Germany.
By signing a Flex Overhaul agreement, customers have peace of mind knowing that GE has a reserved, overhauled engine in stock when they need a replacement engine. After the customer's original Jenbacher equipment reaches a maximum 80,000 operating hours, GE's Jenbacher service team will deliver an overhauled engine to the site to replace the customer's original unit. Upon arrival of the overhauled engine, GE disassembles the existing engine, replaces it with the "new" refurbished unit and returns the original engine to GE's Jenbacher repair facilities.
GE's new Flex Overhaul service offering will help customers align their existing fleets of J312 units with Germany's new renewable energy and building legislation aimed at increasing the supply of renewable energy. The Renewable Energy Sources Act of 2012 is the latest update of Germany's renewable energy law, which stipulates feed-in tariffs that grid operators must pay for renewable energy fed into the power grid. Under the 2012 law, renewables will account for a minimum of 35 percent of the nation's electricity supply by 2020, 50 percent by 2030, 65 percent by 2040 and 80 percent by 2050.
To facilitate implementation of the renewable energy law, corresponding building legislation has been adopted for 2012 to support the development of biogas plants in rural areas, including farms.
With the new Flex Overhaul agreement, a Jenbacher biogas plant owner has the option of upgrading its J312 gas engine up to 625 kW when doing the major engine overhaul. With this power upgrade, the J312 can operate for 8,000 hours a year under full load, consuming up to 2.3 million cubic meters of biogas annually while generating an additional 1,000 megawatt (MW) hours of electricity under continuous operation. This power upgrade allows the biogas plant to be more productive by generating up to 25 percent additional cleaner electricity each year.
"Our new Flex Overhaul offering provides customers with higher flexibility, significantly extending the major overhaul, and it minimizes downtime, resulting in cost savings and the ability to better plan for outages," said Rafael Santana, president and CEO---Gas Engines for GE Energy. "This new service offering is another example of how GE is working to cost-effectively provide its customers globally with the advanced service options to meet their growing needs."
GE's alternative gas-to-power portfolio, including the Jenbacher and Waukesha gas engines product lines as well as heat recovery solutions technology, provides the fuel flexibility needed to accommodate the use of alternative fuels while offering high levels of electrical efficiency with minimized environmental impacts. Overall, GE's Gas Engines business has an installed base of biogas engines with more than 1,800 MW electrical output.
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GE also serves the energy sector by providing technology and service solutions that are based on a commitment to quality and innovation. The company continues to invest in new technology solutions and grow through strategic acquisitions to strengthen its local presence and better serve customers around the world. The businesses that comprise GE Energy---GE Power & Water, GE Energy Management and GE Oil & Gas---work together with more than 100,000 global employees and 2010 revenues of $38 billion, to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; as well as other alternative fuels and new grid modernization technologies to meet 21st century energy needs.
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