GE Monitoring and Diagnostic Team Saves $70 Million

General Electric (GE) recently announced that operational data from its fleet of more than 1,500 gas turbine and generator assets translated to customer savings estimated at $70 million in 2014.

GE's monitoring and diagnostics center collects more than 30,000 operating hours of data every day and features a team of more than 50 engineers who analyze more than 35,000 operational alarms per year. Among the activities monitored at the center are the inlet temperature of a compressor, thermal performance of a gas turbine, temperature of combustion exhaust, dynamic tones of the combustion system, vibration levels of a rotor and the temperature of bearings.

"Our monitoring and diagnostics team and capabilities play a key role in helping GE customers operate their power plants at high levels of performance and reliability," said Justin Eggart of GE's Power Generation Services business. "Our team takes a holistic approach to what we call 'predictive maintenance,' which focuses on helping customers sidestep operational barriers before they occur, no matter what type of equipment they are managing."

Drawing on the experience of hundreds of thousands of resolved cases, GE's monitoring and diagnostics team has developed dozens of physics-based algorithms that provide early warning of more than 150 potential failure mechanisms. This wealth of understanding, blended with application of statistical methods, has enabled the team to continually improve the algorithms, thereby increasing the probability of detection while reducing false alarms.

In 2014, the monitoring and diagnostics center served 502 customer sites in 58 countries, providing assistance more than 8,000 times and helping power plant customers achieve their desired outcomes with reliability and performance.

"We have operational data flowing in continuously from the fleet, and we are in constant contact with our customer sites as well as our broader engineering teams," added Eggart. "Oftentimes, the collaboration between our engineers and customers leads to the fastest and most complete resolution to the issue at hand, and we appreciate those interaction opportunities that our services enable."

The monitoring and diagnostics center monitors technology and equipment not only from GE but also Nooter/Eriksen, Flowserve, Emerson, Delaval, Byron Jackson and others.

For more information, visit www.ge.com.