Providing experience with products and solutions that improve plant reliability and productivity is among the goals of the new Customer Application Center of GE Energy ’s optimization and control business, opening this month in Singapore. The operation is directed, in particular, at local users in power generation, oil and gas, pulp and paper, cement, and mining industries.
The center is the first in Asia for GE Energy and second of several being implemented globally to provide tailored systems for plant asset management, plant distributed control, and reliability. It will allow those in Asia to become aware of and learn about technology trends in plant optimization and controls, says the company. The center, adds Daniel Heintzelman, president of GE Energy’s services business, “allows customers to become more involved in the selection, testing, and training of optimization and control equipment and services.”
The 15,000-sq-ft facility includes a product demonstration center and training center that will offer educational programs, conferences, custom product training, and hands-on operation of state-of-the-art plant asset management equipment and plant control system software. It will also host a remote machinery diagnostics center and facility for engineering and stage testing machinery protection and control systems.
GE maintains a wide range of activities in Singapore from manufacturing to administrative, employing some 1,600 workers with a total revenue originating from the country of close to $1 billion. More on business and investment in Singapore is available from the Singapore Economic Development Board , which plans and executes development strategies in the region.
— Jeanine Katzel , senior editor, Control Engineering
