GE Expands Its Innovative AGP Technology to Fifth Gas Turbine Fleet and Announces First Adoption in the Cement Industry

GE’s Power Services business (GE) today announced another significant series of milestones with its innovative Advanced Gas Path (AGP) solution—a win with Saudi Cement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that expands this technology to the fifth GE gas turbine fleet, the 6B, and marks the first AGP installation in the cement industry. In addition, its win with Ohgishma Power marks the first win for GE’s 9F AGP technology in Japan.

“Since 2010, our revolutionary AGP technology has been installed on 435 units across four GE gas turbine fleets in 39 countries on five continents,” said Scott Strazik, president and CEO of GE’s Power Services business. “Now, we are expanding our AGP solution to GE 6B gas turbines to increase output and availability on our fifth gas turbine type. In certain industrial applications, the need for more megawatts, efficiency and flexibility is paramount, and our AGP technology can help cement companies like Saudi Cement’s increase their power capacity.”

In a deal that represents the first time GE’s AGP solution will be implemented to strengthen power generation productivity for the cement industry globally, GE will upgrade Saudi Cement’s three GE 6B gas turbines at its Hofuf plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The upgrade will help Saudi Cement increase power output and efficiency while reducing the need to draw power from the national grid in support of the Kingdom’s drive towards greater economic diversification. The AGP upgrade will help scale up the combined output by a total of up to 16.9 percent across the three turbines.

Mohammed AlGarni, CEO of Saudi Cement said, “Power supply is both a key input and one of the major costs in our manufacturing process. Reliable, efficient electricity supply is thus essential to the continuous operations of our facility as well as our competitiveness. GE’s Advanced Gas Path upgrade solution will allow us to improve efficiencies and become more self-sufficient in power production.”