DAMMAM: General Electric's vice chairman is upbeat about Saudi Arabia's progress and says his company has an important role to play here.
John Krenicki, who also is president and CEO of General Electric Energy, visited the Kingdom recently to enter into an agreement to partner in the Fuel Flexibility Research Center with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and to tour his company's $100 million Energy Manufacturing Technology Center (GEMTEC) in Dammam slated for completion in 2011. The company has the Kingdom's largest fleet of about 500 turbines. About half of the region's electric power is generated by GE equipment.
With the Kingdom looking at alternative energy to satisfy increasing domestic demand and retain its hydrocarbon energy stream for manufacturing and export, Krenicki said his company's expertise could prove to be invaluable to the country.
"We are one of the major players in the solar business and in the wind business," Krenicki told Arab News. "The thing I would say we are most excited about in Saudi Arabia is energy efficiency, so a lot of the technology we are developing at GEMTEC will allow the Saudi power-generation sector to become more energy efficient."
He said he was impressed by the Kingdom's interest in alternative solutions although it is one of the world's most bountiful in terms of oil reserves.
"The Kingdom has such great hydrocarbon resources - fuel is valuable, but it is cheap," he said. "Where fuel is expensive there is more incentive to invest in advanced technology, so I say the biggest challenge we have in the Kingdom is creating the incentive and the momentum to embrace the state-of-the-art technology where fuel is inexpensive. In our discussions with Aramco and others, they realize the resources are not infinite and that the resource has commercial value as exports outside the Kingdom, so putting more advanced technology into power generation and industrial applications could create more wealth for the Kingdom - just like creating more export capacity."
Krenicki said domestic demand is a big concern.
"Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest growing countries in the world in terms of energy consumption and water consumption, so GE wants to be Saudi Arabia's efficiency partner and technology partner on both the water front and the power front," he said. "The nice thing about energy efficiency is the fuel is free, so that is our top priority in Saudi Arabia. The other high priority is the water we use, and we are bringing the same concept to the water sector," he said.
Krenicki noted that GE is involved in the construction of a turbo-machinery power plant for Saudi Electric Co. and Saudi Aramco and a $10 million water plant already in operation that will serve those companies as well as SABIC and Maaden.
GE has a 60-year history in Saudi Arabia. In 2007, its revenues here amounted to $2 billion. Krenicke himself has been visiting GE facilities in Saudi Arabia for about 20 years, during which time he has seen his company's Saudization efforts grow. He said the changes he has witnessed are remarkable.
"The most exciting thing I see in Saudi Arabia is the transformation in the people," Krenicke said. "For instance, when I toured our factory under construction in Dammam, what I was most proud of is looking at the faces of the GE employees because it is their factory, and they are proud of it. It is their future. Seeing people who are extremely skilled - as skilled as any other part of the world in terms of understanding advanced technology and being able to innovate on their own - is the biggest change I have seen in Saudi Arabia."
When Krenicke talks about competition, he says GE's products and quality of service are unrivaled.
"Our company was founded by Thomas Edison, and we maintain that tradition of trying of having the latest technology and best products," he said. "We try to stay very close to our customers, so when we get customers like Saudi Aramco, Saudi Electric and SABIC, we listen to them carefully, and when they ask us to do something we try to respond. What we are hearing today is we want you to have more Saudi employees, more technology and more manufacturing capability. We are doing that, and in most cases we are years ahead of our competitors."
By SIRAJ WAHAB
© Arab News 2010
