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Implementing real-time asset performance management to cut costs and increase energy efficiency

Key facts

  • GE¹ employs 305,000 people across the globe, achieved revenues of $147 billion and an EBITDA of $28.4 billion (TTM 9/2015).
  • GE’s Digital Wind Farm is an adaptable wind energy ecosystem that pairs turbines with the digital infrastructure for the wind energy industry.
  • As a major player in the Internet of Things, GE have additionally launched Predix, a cloud-based platform as a service (PaaS) to enable industrial-scale analytics for asset performance management (APM) and operations optimization, which will integrate the Digital Windfarm solution.

Uniqueness

  • GE’s modular turbines provide companies with increased flexibility and customization as they can use these turbines instead of building the entire farm with a single model.
  • Digital Windfarm technology promises to increase the affordability, reliability, and sustainability of the energy sector across both developed and developing economies, growing access in underserved regions.
  • Use of sensors, data networks and analytics create turbines that are customized for peak efficiency, achieving up to 20% more in annual energy production.

Value

  • GE’s previous solution, Wind PowerUp technology, has already been installed in 4,000 units, and improved turbine efficiency by up to 5%, which translates to up to a 20% improvement in profitability for each turbine; the new Digital Windfarm technology promises 20% efficiency improvements, which could help generate up to an estimated $50 billion of value for the energy industry.
  • If GE’s digital technology was replicated across the industry, GE predict that even a 1% efficiency improvement would yield over $60 billion in efficiency gains over a 15-year period.

Approach

  • The system works using GE’s two-megawatt platform, which utilizes a digital twin-modelling system to build up to 20 different turbine configurations at every unique pad location across a wind farm.
  • Real-time analytics enables power generation at peak efficiency.
  • Predictive maintenance ensures optimum asset performance and a number of digital processes improve energy procurement and storage.

General Electric is one of more than 100 case studies identified as part of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Transformation of Industries initiative.  An overview of the DTI program can be found here.

1. Source: GE, HBR, TechCrunch, Business Wire, WEF/Accenture Analysis

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