Saudi Company Agrees to Use GE Solution in Solar and Desalination Plants
The First National Operations and Maintenance Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power, will implement the APM solution at 26 thermal, wind, and solar power generation and water desalination sites in nine countries.
GE Power has signed an agreement with the First National Operations and Maintenance Company (NOMAC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power, to implement its APM solution at 26 thermal, wind, and solar power generation and water desalination sites. The facilities generate more than 22,000 megawatts of electricity and more than 2.5 million cubic meters of water per day; they are located across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Vietnam, according to GE's Oct. 30 announcement.
NOMAC provides operations and maintenance services at these facilities and will use APM to help it reduce unscheduled downtime and maintenance duration, as well as to increase operational efficiency and reliability. The agreement was signed by Julio Torre Gutierrez, president and CEO of NOMAC and Bhanu Shekhar, chief digital officer of GE Power in the Middle East and Africa, at GE Digital's 6th Annual Minds+Machines Conference held in San Francisco Oct. 25-26.
"With our growing geographic footprint, it is vital that our technological capabilities match our expanded reach. GE's APM solution is an excellent fit for our requirements, enabling us to serve our customers and the communities they power better by enhancing the availability of uninterrupted, reliable, and more affordable electricity," said Gutierrez.
GE said APM will help NOMAC collect, analyze, and visualize data that are crucial to asset health at its monitoring centers in Dubai and Jeddah and predict equipment and process issues with greater accuracy before they occur. The APM solution is powered by Predix, GE's application development platform for the industrial Internet.
"GE's agreement with NOMAC underscores both the significant focus on driving better efficiency and reliability across the power generation industry, as well as the tangible cost benefits that digital technologies bring to the sector globally. By embracing the digital transformation today, leaders such as NOMAC are enabling the future success and competitiveness of their organizations," Shekhar said.