GE announced a collaboration with Power Costs, Inc. , a privately-owned independent software company, to connect plant asset and operational generation data from GE’s Digital Power Plant solutions with PCI’s energy planning and trading tools for more accurate and profitable energy trading and scheduling.
GE will offer PCI’s suite of solutions, used in more than half of energy trading transactions in North America, on the Predix* operating system for the Industrial Internet.
The collaboration signals GE Power’s continued commitment to deliver digital energy solutions to every part of the electricity value network, from machines to the market. Energy applications that address everything from machine reliability and uptime to fleet-wide operations are sold and delivered on GE’s Predix platform, a cloud-based platform purpose-built for developing, deploying, operating and monetizing Industrial Internet applications.
Collaborating with PCI to better integrate asset performance as well as commercial and operations-level data offers a more comprehensive view of important data to energy producers and an end-to-end set of Predix-enabled software solutions for power, from operations to bidding to billing.
PCI’s solutions are used by generating companies, utilities and independent power producers to simplify and automate the energy trading processes, including asset valuation and bid formation. GE Power’s existing Digital Power Plant software suites address machine and fleet performance. GE’s Asset Performance Management (APM) application suite improves the reliability of power generating machines, reducing unplanned downtime by up to 5 percent, reducing false positive alerts by up to 75 percent and reducing operations and maintenance costs by up to 25 percent. GE Power’s Operations Optimization for Power application helps power producers increase plant capacity and revenue generation by increasing megawatt output and ensuring that plant operators can respond quickly to market opportunities.
Offering PCI’s solution as an additional business optimization application on Predix removes the barriers between the machine, operations and commercial sides of energy businesses, giving a comprehensive view of how much energy can be generated and at what cost. The integrated business, operations and asset-level software applications will allow for better planning, trading, and day-ahead and real-time bidding in the energy and ancillary services market.
Using operations data to understand a plant’s energy generation capacity and connecting that information to energy market trading can further improve the process for traders by reducing the risk of penalties levied when generating businesses overcommit to the market or by increasing revenue when the companies undercommit and do not fully use potential generating capacity. Existing GE and PCI customers can also benefit from the collaboration, with operations and trading solutions delivered on Predix as a single platform available globally.
“Integrating PCI’s market forecasting and trading solution with GE’s Digital Power Plant offerings gives our customers an even more comprehensive software portfolio to address the asset, operations and industry levels of power generation and trading,” said Jay Allardyce, chief operating officer of GE Power’s Digital Solutions business. “GE is offering leading industrial applications such as PCI on the Predix platform as part of expanding our software and solutions ecosystem, helping customers on their journey to digitizing their energy businesses.”
“PCI has delivered world-class solutions to the energy industry for more than two decades,” said Jason Kram, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, PCI. “Partnering with GE will enable us to deliver these solutions on the Predix platform built for industrial customers, and extend our reach worldwide.”
About Power Costs, Inc. (PCI)
PCI is the leading provider of generation supply management software, superior customer support and value-added services for energy focused companies. Founded in 1992 by Dr. Fred Lee, PCI continues to refine and develop new software solutions that meet the ever-evolving needs of its clients which include investor-owned, municipal and cooperative utilities, independent power producers as well as energy marketing and trading organizations. More than half of all the power generated in the United States is optimized using PCI software solutions and over 60% of the Fortune 500 Energy and Utility firms in the U.S. are PCI clients. PCI is a privately held company based in Norman, Oklahoma with offices in Houston, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina. To learn more about PCI, please visit www.powercosts.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.
