GE has implemented the first Predix Asset Performance Management (APM) solution in India for Tata Power’s thermal and renewable energy business. This is one of two deals that GE won in India to optimize approximately 8GW of Tata Power’s thermal and renewable energy power portfolio using digital solutions.
GE is implementing the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) solutions for Tata Power’s thermal assets across nine sites for a period of seven years. The renewable deal is still under execution.
Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power said, “Our aim is to continue to be the leading power company in India and globally by constantly upgrading our assets with state-of-the-art technology and provide our customers with quality and reliable power. GE has provided a noteworthy contribution to fulfill our vision of digitizing our thermal and renewable assets.”
Ashok Sethi, COO and Executive Director, Tata Power said, “Tata Power is a pioneer in India, as well as globally, to have taken up the RCM led O&M transformation on a large scale. This company wide program aims to improve assets reliability, embed best in class O&M processes while optimizing cost. Digitization is one of the main pillars of this program and we’re glad to partner with GE and their APM solution to bring to life our vision.”
GE is supporting Tata Power’s ambitious program to drive operational excellence across its entire fleet—from traditional generation to renewable sources. This includes the implementation of RCM on their thermal assets, which was launched two years ago by Tata Power to increase the reliability of all its equipment with a proactive approach of the daily operation and maintenance. GE’s solution will help Tata Power reduce its operations & maintenance (O&M) expenses, optimize availability, reliability, reduce risk, and reduce costs through intelligent asset strategies, as well as improve maintenance planning for its power plants. In addition, this agreement includes GE’s Renewable Energy Digital’s lifecycle and APM solutions on their wind and solar assets. GE has also been chosen to provide a digital wind and solar APM solution to manage Tata Power’s wind turbine and solar inverter assets across 10 additional sites in India. The wind sites covered by this agreement include 7 different OEM wind turbine models totaling 1 GW.
Commenting on the significance of the announcement, Andrew DeLeone, Managing Director, GE Power India Ltd. said, “We are excited to partner with Tata Power in extending our range of digital solutions to the company’s fleet of power plants. Given the enormous potential of digitization and IIoT to drive operational performance, this technology will help improve asset reliability and availability while reducing O&M costs. GE remains committed to improve India’s thermal assets, thereby moving the country forward in its journey towards cleaner power.”
“The TATA win is a solid milestone in the evolution of GE’s digital strategy in energy. From the inception, this deal was driven by TATA’s own operational strategy and success measured in outcomes. The combined offering of our digital and lifecycle solutions will position TATA for the future in managing unplanned maintenance costs, reducing risk and ultimately increasing revenue, across not only their GE but also non-GE assets” said Anne McEntee, CEO of GE Renewable Energy Digital Services. “Digital also enables flexibility. The power market transformation is a race for flexibility. As TATA’s generations sources diversify, the integration and orchestration across assets becomes even more critical.”
GE’s APM employs holistic and risk-based intelligent asset strategies to balance performance and cost by considering design, operational procedures, and maintenance plans for all assets. These solutions can be applied across GE or non-GE assets. The Predix-operated APM helps reduce unplanned downtime and increases availability and reliability by helping to ensure that critical assets and systems are monitored and protected from emerging threats. Further, costly emergency repairs can be drastically reduced by detecting problems early, turning unplanned downtime into planned downtime. The implementation of this technology will help provide heads up on potential problems and consequently help users make better-informed decisions. GE’s APM solution has helped customers globally improve the reliability of power generating machines, reducing unplanned downtime up to 5 percent, reducing false positive alerts up to 75 percent and reducing overall operations and maintenance costs.