Open Letter To The Editor Of Reuters From Saudi Electricity Company's Khalid Al-Tuaimi And GE Power's Russell Stokes
For almost 40 years, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and GE have partnered together to advance the Kingdom’s power generation sector, develop the capabilities of talented local employees and youth, and bring about a fundamental change to the sector, driven by industry-leading innovations.
Reuters reported on July 19, 2018, that SEC was “lining up competitors to bid against GE for lucrative power plant work.” They stated in their headline, “General Electric’s Power Unit Faces Threat in Saudi Arabia.” The piece showed a stunning lack of understanding of how companies such as SEC and GE, the power sector, and global markets operate, compete and deliver results every day.
SEC, like many power plant owners and operators around the world — including other GE customers — always qualifies multiple vendors to provide services for its various fleets as part of its standard operating procedures, and in accordance with local public procurement laws. When a technology matures — such as E-class gas turbines — an increasing number of service providers develop capabilities. This is a part of regular industry dynamics.
At present, GE’s F-class units in SEC continue to be covered under various service agreements, and GE provides solutions to enhance the efficiency of SEC’s mature fleets, among other services.
GE also continues to invest in world-class facilities in Saudi Arabia, such as GEMTEC, a repairs and services hub for power generation equipment, which has served more than 70 customers across more than 40 markets, supporting high-value exports from the Kingdom to the world. In 2016, GE and SEC inaugurated the Saudi PowerGen Efficiency Center (SPEC) for gas and steam turbines. Located in GEMTEC and led by a joint team of SEC and GE engineers, SPEC serves as a real-time monitoring hub that is linked to more than 500 power generation trains in the Kingdom. SEC has also established a Generation & Optimization Center (GOC) equipped with GE’s digital solutions to monitor, analyze and enhance the reliability and efficiency of power plants that together represent more than 70 percent of SEC’s total power generation.
Every day, SEC and GE’s teams strive to develop more innovative products and better ways to deliver services. As the market changes, so do we — and together, we thrive on this change.
Khalid Al-Tuaimi
Executive Vice President for Generation, Saudi Electricity Company
Russell Stokes
President and CEO, GE Power
Top image: A GE gas turbine in Greenville, South Carolina. Image credit: GE Reports.