GE, Gama Energy sign deal to operate first digital power plant in Turkey

ISTANBUL

GE and Gama Energy have signed an agreement to operate the first digital power plant in Turkey, they said in a statement on Feb. 8.

This deal marks the first use of industrial cloud software applications in a power plant in Turkey to improve efficiency and productivity, according to the statement.

GE will install GAMA’s 840 megawatt İç Anadolu Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant in the city of Kırıkkale with its advanced digital solutions, Asset Performance Management (APM) and Operations Optimization (OO) solutions using Predix, the operating system for the Industrial Internet.  Installation of these digital solutions is planned for early 2017.

“We’re proud to be the first digital power plant adopter in Turkey through our collaboration with GE. GE’s enhanced total plant capabilities, advanced digital competencies and our 15 year history together give us great confidence in these new solutions to help us reduce maintenance costs and increase operational efficiency in the plant furthermore,” said Gama Energy General Manager Sıtkı Şerifeken.

The deal builds upon last year’s multi-year agreement between GE and Gama to provide planned and unplanned maintenance services under availability and performance guarantees for two GE 9F.05 gas turbines and a GE D11 steam turbine, according to the statement. 

“Unplanned outages in power plants correspond to 3-8 percent of a plant’s capacity” said Murat Demirel, GE’s Power Services Eastern Europe and Turkey General Manager. 

“GE’s APM solution will bring a significant efficiency boost through early detection of such outages at power plants currently using this solution.  We estimate these solutions have the potential to save up to $3 million annually through early detection of outages,” Demirel added. 

Natural gas has the leading position in power generation with its share of 33 percent in Turkey.  

Demirel noted these digital solutions can help yield more plant operational efficiencies associated with limited natural gas resources.