GE has signed a service alliance with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the nation’s largest public power provider, covering four TVA power plants and valued at $116 million over the next five years. The alliance will help TVA meet its strategic needs by ensuring the long-term reliability, efficiency and cost-effective operation of its power generation equipment.
Under the agreement, GE will provide service support for the next 24 planned outages at TVA’s Brown’s Ferry nuclear plant and the Paradise, Bull Run and Widow’s Creek fossil (steam) plants. GE Energy Services will provide a core team that will provide expertise and experience on site at the various plant locations to help TVA manage the outages and respond quickly to specific project requirements. A team of senior managers from both companies will oversee the implementation of the five-year alliance.
“The agreement will enable GE to focus on the planning and resourcing of outages well ahead of the anticipated project,” noted Anne McEntee, general manager – power services for GE Energy Services. “This will benefit TVA by helping them stay within budget, have reliable and predictable outages and, in the long term, help them operate at the highest efficiency levels.”
The alliance is designed to create an environment in which both parties work together like one entity to meet the strategic needs of TVA. The two companies’ mutual mission is to improve TVA’s turbine-generator fleet performance through risk/reward sharing, improving and innovating processes, utilizing new technology and optimizing outages.
“We are pleased that TVA has selected us to support this very important aspect of their business,” said Barry Weiss, GE Energy southern region executive. “Working together, I am confident that we can help TVA mitigate the risk of unplanned outages to business continuity.”
GE’s long-term service agreements cover the supply of parts, repairs and field services for planned and unplanned outages of turbine-generators and auxiliary equipment, along with performance guarantees. These agreements are structured to provide customers with predictable maintenance costs, while ensuring a steady revenue flow from power plant operations. To date, GE has long-term service agreements in place at more than 600 sites worldwide.
TVA supplies power to the large industries and power distributors that serve approximately 9 million consumers in seven southeastern U.S. states.