GE Vernova to invest US$20 million in expanding gas turbine repair centre in Singapore

ENERGY equipment manufacturer GE Vernova plans to invest US$20 million to develop new repair capabilities for its gas turbine service centre in Singapore, it said on Monday (Jan 6).

The investment comes 1.5 years after the company expanded the facility’s scope to include rotor repairs for high-efficiency, air-cooled gas turbines. The US$20 million sum is on top of the US$60 million that GE Vernova had in 2019 committed to invest in the repair centre over 10 years.

Scott Strazik, chief executive officer of GE Vernova – which was spun off as a separate unit from General Electric last April – said that while the expansion this time is incremental, it will provide the Singapore facility with more functionality to service an even larger proportion of repair activity.

“The gas turbines are our largest high-efficiency gas turbines, and form the biggest part of our new capacity additions. A lion’s share of the repair activity goes to this shop,” he told reporters in an interview on Monday.

“So as the installed base is growing... more and more is needed to serve that installed base in a part of the world that has almost 50 per cent of the fleet.”

Some of the new repair capabilities will include the use of robotics and artificial intelligence. The centre plans to hire for more than 100 technical roles in the next five years.

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Ramesh Singaram, CEO of GE Vernova’s gas power business in Asia, said that gas turbine owners in the region will benefit from this investment as there will be improvements to lead time and the delivery of repair components during outages.

Amid the global pressure to decarbonise the power sector, GE Vernova said that gas will continue to play an important role over the next decade.

The installed base for its gas turbines – which can also be powered by hydrogen and not just natural gas – is growing rapidly in Asia. Currently, more than one-third of the company’s high-efficiency, air-cooled gas turbines are located in, or are on order for, the region.

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While Strazik declined to provide a regional breakdown, he said that Asia is a “material part of the future business”.

The company aims to hit US$35 billion in global revenue this year, and at least US$45 billion by 2028. It is also “very bullish on Asia being a very important contributor towards that global growth”.

While Taiwan is currently experiencing the highest growth in demand for such gas turbines, there are opportunities in South-east Asia as well, Strazik said. This is as more hyperscalers are building data centres in markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

GE Vernova is among the consortium partners appointed by YTL PowerSeraya to develop hydrogen-ready power-generation technology for a power plant. This was after YTL PowerSeraya was awarded the inaugural request for proposal by Singapore’s Energy Market Authority in January 2024.

The upcoming power plant, which will have a capacity of at least 600 megawatts, is expected to be commissioned by end-2027.

Strazik said that the investments in South-east Asia will be an important part of the region’s energy ecosystem indefinitely.

“We’ll decarbonise those investments with zero-carbon fuels like hydrogen... (and) carbon capture. But it’s not that I think about the investments in gas as a transition,” he said.

“I think about those investments in gas as a force multiplier that allows those countries to invest in other technologies, because they have the sturdiness of gas to support the holistic system.”