From GE:

GE Signs an Agreement to Maintain Central Puerto’s Power Plant in Argentina and Launch Its Digital Transformation

August 24, 2016

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• Site Serves as Model for Latin American Utilities Seeking to Make Their Plants More Reliable and Responsive to Changing Electricity Demands
• Agreement Marks First Time GE Will Bring Its High-Efficiency HA Gas Turbine Technology and Advanced Digital Industrial Solutions to Argentina’s Power Sector
• GE’s APM Digital Solution Will Help Central Puerto to Predict Equipment Failures and Avoid Costly Unplanned Outages 

BUENOS AIRES—August 24, 2016—GE (NYSE: GE) today announced it has signed an extension of a multiyear maintenance services agreement with Central Puerto to support its 760-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle power plant in Buenos Aires for an additional nine years. The over $70 million contract includes the first order in Argentina for GE’s advanced digital power plant solutions and extends a nearly two-decade collaboration between Central Puerto and GE to bring reliable and efficient power to the people of Argentina.

Central Puerto recently purchased a GE 9HA.01 gas turbine, with the installation planned for the following years, marking GE’s first order for its advanced-efficiency HA gas turbine technology in the Latin American and Caribbean regions.

“We are pleased this project incorporates the latest digital technology into our multiyear agreement with GE to help us ensure that our Central Puerto power plant operates at the highest levels of reliability and availability,” said José Luis Morea, chief strategy officer of Central Puerto. “This station is crucial to the reliability of the power grid in Buenos Aires, requiring that it operates at the best possible performance levels and generating the equivalent power needed to supply more than 500,000 homes in the country.”

This agreement provides Central Puerto with an array of GE power generation technologies, including a full power station distributed control system upgrade, a liquid fuel filtering system, improved balance of plant equipment as well as comprehensive services to maintain the station’s boilers, condenser and steam turbine.

“With Argentina’s increasing energy demands, power plants such as Central Puerto are finding innovative ways to improve the reliability and performance of their plant operations to address the country’s needs,” said Ramon Paramio, regional general manager of GE’s Power Services business in Latin America. “GE’s total plant solutions allow us to enhance our offerings to provide the latest digital technologies, which will help Central Puerto be better positioned to compete in a fast growing power generation marketplace.”

Powered by Predix, GE’s advanced cloud-based operating system built exclusively for the industry, theAsset Performance Management (APM) software application will draw data to monitor, analyze, enhance and predict equipment health at Central Puerto. The APM’s anomaly detection capability will help Central Puerto predict outages before they happen, which ultimately improves the power plant’s reliability, enables just-in-time maintenance improvement and reduces plant downtime.

Using a network of thousands of sensors placed throughout the 760-MW, combined-cycle power plant, GE’s APM predictive maintenance system can help to increase the station’s reliability and availability while reducing unnecessary maintenance costs. The APM offers early warnings of failure mechanisms about plant components that are about to fail and allowing the Central Puerto team to more efficiently manage outages.

The 9HA is GE’s largest gas turbine and holds the Guinness World RecordsTM title for powering the most efficient combined-cycle power plant with a total efficiency of up to 62.22 percent at the EDF power plant in Bouchain, France.

Central Puerto is a leading generation company in Argentina responsible for providing 17 percent of the country’s power production and has a long relationship with GE. In addition to the Central Puerto power plant, the utility owns several additional generation plants, two of them with GE gas turbine units in Mendoza and Ensenada. GE has maintained the Central Puerto’s Buenos Aires station since 2000.

About Central Puerto

Central Puerto SA (BCBA: CEPU) is the largest privately-owned power generation company in Argentina, operating 5.5 GW of power generation capacity. Central Puerto’s assets are spread all across Argentina, with strategic positions in power generation and distribution, and natural gas transportation and distribution. Central Puerto’s competitive advantages range from the commercial to the financial level. With a balanced risk profile, its financial strength and operational efficiency, Central Puerto balances both growth and value creation to deliver on its strategic goals. Its business is well diversified in terms of geography, power generation technologies, and alternative fuel consumption, including biofuels. With its recognized ability to navigate challenging business environments, Central Puerto is best positioned to deliver the next wave of power capacity additions required in Argentina.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store”, through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

About GE Power

GE Power is a world leader in power generation with deep domain expertise to help customers deliver electricity from a wide spectrum of fuel sources. We are transforming the electricity industry with the digital power plant, the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine, full balance of plant, upgrade and service solutions as well as our data-leveraging software. Our innovative technologies and digital offerings help make power more affordable, reliable, accessible and sustainable.