GE In Services Deal With MRC

MRC group, which acquired the Alon Tavor power plant from Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) last July, has announced a new 15-year services agreement with GE. The contract covers parts, repairs and predictive maintenance solutions for GE’s 9FA unit installed at the 375 MW combined cycle plant, located in the Alon Tavor industrial zone, in the northern Israeli city of Afula.

In addition, the agreement foresees the gas turbine will be connected to the GE´s Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center for 24/7 predictive maintenance support. In this center, based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, a team of more than 50 M&D engineers analyzes more than 50,000 operational alarms per year, assisting power plant and industrial operators in enhancing their asset reliability and performance 24/7/365. The contract includes an option for upgrading the turbine with GE’s Advanced Gas Path technology to improve unit’s availability, heat rate and output.

“The reliability of a turbine impacts the performance of the entire plant” said Gigi Shlomo CEO of MRC Alon Tavor Power Ltd. “We’re confident in GE technology and trust GE’s expertise.  It was therefore a natural choice for us to turn to GE to help us find the right solution.

“After examining both operating and capital expenditures, we determined GE’s total plant solution and the use of advanced analytics represented the best option for our plant to improve 9FA gas turbine’s reliability, as well as to lower its operation and maintenance costs”.

“We are proud to have been selected by MRC to continue to ensure the reliability, availability and efficiency of its Alon Tavor powerplant” said Michael Rechsteiner, vice president and CEO of GE’s Gas Power business in Europe. “As the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of Alon Tavor’s power island since 2004, when the plant was commissioned, we have been responsible for the reliable operations of the plant’s power generation equipment. We are honored that MRC awarded our expertise and proven execution capabilities with this new agreement”.

Just a day earlier, GE announced it had received another order from Israel Electric Corp. (IEC), the largest generator and supplier of electricity in Israel, for a second 9HA.01 heavy-duty gas turbine. IEC is using GE’s HA gas turbine technology at its Orot Rabin plant, located in Hadera, Israel, as part of the conversion of the existing power station from coal to gas generation.

For more information on that installation, click here.