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Podcasts

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Daniel Tegtmeier, Director of EthosEnergy’s Performance Center, talks about remote operations and monitoring. 

TurboTime Podcast: Remote Monitoring with EthosEnergy

In part two of this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, Klaus Burn of Ebara Elliott Energy, and Rainer Kurz of RKSBenergy LLC, discuss surge and choke on a compressor map. They explain where they occur on the map, what happens to the compressor when they operate in these extremes, and about transient operation of a compressor.

Brun explained surge: “On the left side of the map you have surge, and on the right side is choke, overload, or stonewall. The most basic definition of surge is the compressor head cannot overcome the system-imposed pressure, i.e., pressure on the outside on the suction and discharge, and the compressor is not making enough head to overcome that pressure differential. So instead of the flow moving forward through the compressor, the flow suddenly turns around and goes backward through the machine until that pressure balances again, at which point the machine can overcome that head. Then it starts a process again. And that becomes a circular process—you get into these surge cycles, and it's a fairly complex thing.”

Kurz emphasizes that surge is an interaction between the compressor and the system around it, “meaning the compressor by itself doesn't surge,” he said. “If the system forces the compressor to make more pressure ratio than under whatever conditions the compressor is going to make, then the gas thus what it wanted to do in the first place, which is go from the high pressure to low pressure, meaning it goes backward through the compressor. The tricky part with that is on the compressor map, we show what the compressor does. So, the map by itself and that surge line on the map is essentially something you derive from the compressor performance.”

The Myth Busters, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz, talk about surge and choke on a compressor map. 

TurboTime Podcast: Part II: Surge and Choke with the Myth Busters 

In this two-part episode of the TurboTime Podcast, Klaus Burn of Ebara Elliott Energy, and Rainer Kurz of RKSBenergy LLC, discuss compressor maps. The duo explains what compressor maps are, what they are useful for, how they fit into the process, and where head, flow, and efficiency islands fit in.

“In its most basic form, a compressor map is a graphical representation of how a centrifugal compressor behaves,” Brun said. “It's somewhat of an oversimplification because more factors play into it; but overall, it gives an accurate representation of what a compressor does within the system that it operates. A standard compressor map has an X and Y axis. The Y axis has something called head—isentropic or polytropic head. Sometimes you also see pressure ratio or a discharge pressure or a fixed section pressure. On the X axis is flow, and most of the time it’s volumetric flow. Sometimes you see mass flow, but that's not very common. Compressor maps also have a surge line on the left and on the right side of the map you have a choke or stonewall area. And finally, you have efficiency islands, and they correspond to the efficiency of the compressor. Not all compressor maps show them.”

Kurz further described efficiency islands: “Efficiency islands refer to the fact that these maps are three-dimensional, but we can only put them in two dimensions on paper. The three axes you want to display are head, flow, and efficiency. You use the efficiency lines in a very similar way to elevation lines. Also, the coordinates of the map that are directly affected by the compressor aerodynamics are head and flow. You can translate head into pressures or pressure ratios, and you can translate actual flow into mass flow, but ultimately what happens aerodynamically in the compressor is described by head and actual flow.”

The Myth Busters, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz, talk about compressor maps—what they are, how they are generated, and what they are useful for. 



TurboTime Podcast: Part I: Compressor Maps with the Myth Busters 

In this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, we talk with Giuseppe Tilocca, Scientific Officer at ETN Global, a non-profit member association in the gas turbine technology space. ETN Global’s recent global report, 

Decentralized Energy Systems: Toward Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions for Gas Turbines

, compares decentralized systems to centralized heat and power units and highlights its advantages—including modularity, the possibility to exploit waste heat avoiding energy transmission losses, and reducing energy distribution costs. Tilocca reviews these advantages in detail, as well as trends and emerging market opportunities, and he dives into gas turbines and how they fit into decentralized energy systems.

“Considering this specific report, we all know that the energy sector is transforming very quickly, and it's mainly driven by the increasingly high share of renewable energy sources,” Ticolla said. “In this scenario, which is dominated by variable sources whose daily, weekly, and seasonal flexibility are set to go dramatically, to meet the system requirements while accomplishing the ambitious decarbonization goals, we need to support traditional centralized generation with a mix of the centralized components.”

So, how does ETN Global define decentralized energy systems, and what are their advantages?

“Historically, we established centralized energy systems, meaning large plants located far from consumers,” Tilocca explained. “The reason behind it is merely economy of scale and efficiency, so it is cheaper to have one big plant than many small ones; however, with the increasing integration of variable renewable energy sources, which are inherently decentralized, we now need to adapt our infrastructure and incorporate technologies that are traditionally used for centralized energy. By definition, a decentralized energy system is located close to the consumption nodes—so on the end user side of the network—and therefore it's connected to the distribution grid rather than the transmission grid. The advantages of a decentralized energy system are mainly modularity, the possibility of exploiting waste heat, and a positive contribution to stability. In particular, one of the main advantages of being close to consumption nodes is avoiding transmission and distribution losses and also costs compared to centralized generation. Centralized energy systems are pivotal in meeting the pillars of the energy trilemma, which stress the principles of affordability, security, and climate neutrality and hence it aligns with the requirements for the transition toward 2030 but also 2040 and 2050.”

ETN Global’s Scientific Officer, Giuseppe Tilocca, talks about the association’s recent report on decentralized energy systems—their advantages and challenges, trends, and where and how gas turbines fit in.  

TurboTime Podcast: Decentralized Energy Systems with ETN Global 

In this episode of the TurboTime Podcast, the Myth Busters discusses the role of turbomachinery in energy transport and storage, including how gas turbines maximize energy density. They dive into various forms of energy storage—including batteries, hydrogen, and mechanical and thermal energy—for various energy sources such as wind, solar, fossil fuels, etc., and more.

During the energy transport and conversion processes, for example in the case of hydrogen, there are significant energy losses. The lowest losses are with coal, then oil and fossil fuels. As a result of these losses, “Hydrogen is a viable solution for storage, but it’s not a great solution to power a large-scale electric power plant by itself,” Kurz said.

Really, energy comes down to sustainability, affordability, and sustainability of supply – and in this equation, renewables are typically intermittent and not a reliable full-time source of energy.

So where does turbomachinery fit into all of this?

“From a turbomachinery perspective, if you exclude electric—because as Rainer said, it's not always applicable, as you can’t transport energy from Venezuela to Florida along an electric line—then you have to convert your energy stored material, be it natural gas, oil, coal, or from an alternative source then you have to convert it into hydrogen or ammonia or something else, and then transport it,” Brun explained. “All these convergent processes utilize turbomachinery. We have maybe 100 years of experience transporting oil in pipelines and ships and trucks and that involves a lot of pumping—we're very good at pumping – it’s very efficient. We also have about a similar amount of time compressing natural gas, which over the last 40 - 50 years we've used a lot more centrifugal compressors for transporting natural gas. Now we're running into the challenge of sustainable alternative energies where basically you're saying, ‘OK, I'm going to take my wind and solar electric and convert them to let's say hydrogen or ammonia or dimethyl ether or methanol—there are a lot of fluids that you can make from electricity that are energy carriers—but then they have to be transported. Hydrogen is the lightest gas (We had a previous podcast where we talked about the challenges of 

). Similarly, ammonia is a liquid that has to be transported at slightly refrigerated temperatures, and it brings its own challenges because it's highly poisonous and very corrosive to a lot of materials. Dimethyl ether is not that hard to transport—it’s similar to diesel—but it's very expensive to make. Methanol is also highly poisonous. So there are a lot of other challenges that you now face with these energy carriers that you worry about when transporting your original form of energy to the end user.”

Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz dial into energy storage and transport—why they are necessary, how turbomachinery fits into these processes, and more. 

TurboTime Podcast: Energy Transport and Storage with the Myth Busters 

This episode of the TurboTime podcast dives into carbon capture and storage (CCS) with Spencer Schecht, the Senior Business Development Lead at the Global CCS Institute. We discuss how these facilities are at an all-time high, the role of carbon capture networks and hubs, and some of the challenges and hurdles it’s facing.

, said that CCS has ramped up to an all-time high— a 102% increase in scheduled deployments since 2022—due to supportive and enabling policy, as CCS is becoming a more prominent feature of public policy.

“At a high level, we need CCS and CO2 removal to meet our climate targets to achieve climate neutrality,” Schecht said. “So, while we require an all-of-the-above portfolio of climate technologies and solutions, it is the versatility of CCS—the fact that it enables both emissions mitigation and removal—that makes it such a unique and important resource in our climate toolkit. For example, CCS can be applied across emissions-intensive industries, including hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, cement, chemical production, and power production, to achieve decarbonization that is not otherwise technically nor economically possible. This enables the reduction of low-carbon hydrogen, and it can also be retrofitted on fossil-fuel power plants or incorporated in the design of new power plants providing baseload low-carbon dispatchable electricity. And when combined with bioenergy or direct air capture, with permanent geologic storage, CCS is an enabler of delivering negative emissions, and we need negative emissions to scale massively in the years ahead. This lays out a very clear picture that CCS and CO2 removal must scale up to gigatons, which is billions of tons per year, to achieve our climate targets.”

Check out the Global CCS Institute’s insights in 

Turbomachinery International’s May/June cover story

Carbon capture and storage’s versatility enables both emissions mitigation and removal, making it a unique and important resource as a climate solution.

TurboTime Podcast: Carbon Capture and Storage with the Global CCS Institute 

During this episode of the TurboTime podcast, we discuss digital ecosystems with Jim Nyenhuis, the Performance Consultant at Emerson’s Power and Water Solutions Business. We focus on software, including AI-based software, detection and monitoring technologies, software’s influence on a turbomachine’s life, as well as cybersecurity and potential risks that power plants are exposed to.

Q: How does a digital ecosystem improve operational efficiency, plant safety, etc.?

 Digital technologies allow us to address all those issues. We work with customers to understand what operational efficiency means to them based on their objectives. Plant safety is without question built into everything we do. We want to understand and leverage what the underlying technology can tell us and let that information feed up through the digital ecosystem—how do we understand what's working well at the plant level, how do we identify if there are control problems or if individual pieces of equipment are having issues? A lot of that information is lying within the automation infrastructure, and I don't think we've leveraged that to the degree we want to. We find many customers do not understand the performance characteristics of their closed-loop controls or areas to drive additional improvement, efficiencies, etc.

Performance and control management is another big area that we look at. Our information, such as the automation system, will oftentimes track what operators are doing within the system. In the past, that information was stored in text-based logs, but there's a lot of valuable information stored in those log files that if we expose that information, we can understand how operators are interfacing with the system during different periods of operation, be it startup, shut down, various operating modes, etc., and based on that we can determine where operators are spending a lot of their time.

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, we talk about digital ecosystems, including AI-based software, cybersecurity, and more with Jim Nyenhuis from Emerson. 

TurboTime Podcast: Software & Cybersecurity with Emerson 

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, the Myth Busters, Klaus Brun, the Director of R&D at Elliott Group, and Rainer Kurz, a recent retiree from Manager of Gas Compressor Engineering at Solar Turbines, discuss turbomachinery codes and standards. The two differentiate codes versus standards, which are important for turbomachinery, and what to do if an operator or manufacturer disagrees with a standard.

Brun broke down the four components: standards, codes, specifications, and guidelines. “A standard is somewhat of a generic requirement; you can almost call it the minimum requirement that industry associations agree on for a piece of equipment,” he said. “There's a lot of gray area between here. Next are specifications—they are often related to a specific customer—one of the major oil companies may have its own specifications, and they often tie in standards. For example, let's say Shell or Chevron has their own machinery specification, and they may refer to standards, such as American Petroleum Institute (API) 616 or the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards, material standards, etc. And then you get into things like codes, where the gray area becomes even bigger. But codes traditionally refer to something a little stricter. These can be test codes, where there is a process that you have to follow, and you don't deviate from this process. There are codes related to OSHA requirements or legal requirements. Codes tend to be a little more rigid, more relevant, and more richly followed. Finally, there are industry guidelines from the API and other professional societies. They give advice and guidance on how to handle testing processes, design, etc.”

Kurz stressed that standards are not legally enforceable unless included in a purchasing agreement: “What makes a standard enforceable is if a customer in the purchase specifications says ‘Thou shalt follow such and such API requirement or these ASME standards.’ And then it becomes part of the contract and enforceable” he said.

Kurz also pointed out that one purpose of codes and standards is for system integration. “If you build a refinery, there's one manufacturer who builds the compressor, then there are people who build the pressure vessels, others who build the piping, and maybe the steam turbines. So, there are a lot of different parties involved that have to come together. And one thing that these codes and standards do is create a reasonable definition of the interfaces. At the end of the day, somebody needs to integrate all that equipment.”

The Myth Busters, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz, discuss turbomachinery codes and standards on the TurboTime podcast. 

TurboTime Podcast: Turbomachinery Codes and Standards with Myth Busters

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, we are featuring part of an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer, the Global Hydrogen Value Chain Leader at GE Vernova, recorded at POWERGEN 2024 with our assistant editor, James Cook. Dr. Goldmeer discusses the many pathways to decarbonization, including next-generation combustors that support hydrogen and ammonia.

Below is a quick snippet of the interview with GE Vernova's global hydrogen leader:

 In the United States, in the South and Southwest, there are only approximately 1,600 miles of hydrogen-ready pipeline. Why is there a lack of hydrogen infrastructure in the United States, and are there roadblocks for hydrogen development in other areas of the country?

 When you say lack of infrastructure, if you're here in the Gulf Coast, where most hydrogen in the United States is consumed and produced, I don't think they would tell you they have an infrastructure issue. What we're talking about is a future where we might see the production and use of hydrogen more decentralized, across the United States. So that might imply maybe there's a lack of infrastructure in those places, but those places today don't have large-scale hydrogen production and consumption, So, I don't think it's a lack of infrastructure; I think that we haven't developed the hydrogen ecosystem in those locations. Now that's not to say that hydrogen isn't produced locally and used locally around the world, even in the United States—I think about companies that are producing hydrogen to use in fuel cells and forklifts. but they're producing it and transporting it by truck because they don’t have the volume of needing a pipeline.”

 featuring more content from our interview with Dr. Goldmeer.

This episode of the TurboTime podcast features an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer, the Global Hydrogen Value Chain Leader at GE Vernova. 

TurboTime Podcast: Hydrogen, Ammonia, Decarbonization with GE Vernova

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz talk about methane leakage in the oil and gas industry, which is only one of the many sectors that contribute to methane emissions in the United States. The biogas sector, including landfills and agriculture, contributes to methane leakage as do coal mines. That said, our industry still accounts for a percentage of methane emissions. The Myth Busters discuss where and how it occurs in the oil and gas industry, how different types of compressors compare in terms of leakage, the role of dry gas seals, and more.

“Methane leakage, in our industry, is primarily from natural gas; and natural gas is called natural gas because it is natural—it is naturally occurring and naturally created,” Brun said. “So, if you talk about methane leakage in the oil and gas industry—really what we should be talking about is natural gas leakage—it is a relatively small part overall of the total natural gas leakage in the world. It is roughly three times smaller than natural gas that is created by natural sources being wetlands and swamps and whatever. The oil and gas industry contributes about three times less than what natural sources do. Also, agriculture contributes about twice as much natural gas. The actual amount of leakage of natural gas into the environment due to the oil and gas industry is somewhat debated and a lot of numbers are floating around, but typically you're talking somewhere between 10 - 20% of the total natural gas that is emitted into the environment comes from oil and gas. The rest is, as I mentioned before, from natural-occurring sources, such as wetlands and agriculture.

“When you look at the oil and gas process, which basically means you're getting oil and gas out of the ground at a well, and then that oil and gas is transmitted to pipelines, and then it goes to either a consumer, you and me, or it goes to industrial places, or it goes to power plants,” Brun continued. “And so, there are many places in that process where it can leak. For very basic economic reasons, nobody wants this gas to leak, right? It costs a lot of money to get it out of the ground, and it costs a lot of money to transport it, and it costs a lot of money to do something with it. So, nobody really wants it to leak, so there is a natural desire by our industry to keep this gas from leaking, but it does.”

In this episode of the TurboTime podcast, Myth Busters Klaus Brun and Rainer Kurz talk about methane leakage. 

TurboTime Podcast: Methane Leakage with Myth Busters 

The East Texas facility will serve as a buffer to balance natural gas supply and demand, ensuring continuous service during times of peak electricity demand.

Trinity Gas Storage’s Facility Goes Online, Supports ERCOT Grid

This project will enable oil and gas operators, tribes, and other U.S.-based entities to reduce, monitor, measure, and quantify oil and gas methane emissions.

DOE Grants Envana $5.2M to Enhance Methane Detection, Mitigation

Svante will capture, compress, condition, and liquefy CO2 emissions, and Tenaska will manage CO2 transportation and sequestration.

Svante Technologies, Tenaska to Develop Industrial CCS Solutions

Brightmark partners with farmers to produce RNG through anaerobic digestion to collect and digest organic waste to extract methane and upgrade it into RNG for use as fuel.

Chevron’s Brightmark RNG Produces First Gas Across 10 Midwestern Projects

Xu Xin, President of GE Vernova Gas Power - China Services, said natural gas will help China replace coal with a scalable power supply.

The Coal-to-Gas Transition: GE Vernova Decarbonizing China with H-Class Technology

Turbo Tour of EthosEnergy’s facility in Houston, Performance Center Director Daniel Tegtmeier offered his insights into the growth and evolution of remote monitoring, its advantages and challenges, and how the company seeks to establish partnerships in all things turbine- and plant-related.

Daniel Tegtmeier of EthosEnergy shares how remote monitoring has grown over the past several years and the advantages and challenges of virtual capabilities. 

Remote Monitoring: Growth, Advantages, and Challenges

Q: How has remote monitoring grown and evolved over the past several years? What’s next?

What started as very manual processes has now evolved to mostly automatic and automatically generated monitoring activities. What used to take operators and engineers days to troubleshoot problems is now an automated process via advancements in technology.

Q: EthosEnergy now has full start/stop capability on natural gas-fired power plants. What advantage does this offer your customers?

It’s more than just start and stop in thermal plants; we can start and stop renewable assets as well. Some of the advantages of remote operation are efficiencies. You could streamline the staffing model for intermittent thermal assets. Secondly, our package includes remote monitoring and advanced analytics that’s applied to the remote operation of customer assets, ensuring that they stay competitive in today’s market.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing the power industry as it relates to remote operations?

The biggest challenge is the reluctance to shift operating modes from mostly on-site human presence—operating the plant as designed—to remote facilities that apply humans to asset monitoring.

Q: What are EthosEnergy’s five- to 10-year goals?

The five-year goal is growth. EthosEnergy aspires to be a partner in all things turbine- and plant-related, and it’s not just the power industry. Turbines are used in a host of operations like LNG and oil and gas—we seek to be the largest partner for all those industries in the realm of rotating equipment. We want to increase partnerships and our OEM presence.

Remote Monitoring: Growth, Advantages, and Challenges 

’s visit to EthosEnergy’s Houston-based light gas turbine workshop, Philip Booth, the Engineering Manager, shared his favorite part of day-to-day operations and offered insight into the available tools used in reverse engineering.

EthosEnergy’s Engineering Manager Philip Booth discusses available technology in reverse engineering for rotating equipment.

Reverse Engineering Adapts with Advanced Technologies

Q: What progress has been made over the last 10 - 20 years in available technology relating to engineering/reverse-engineering capability for rotating equipment?

The technology from OEMs has become increasingly complex, so reverse engineering must follow that complexity. Some of the available tools used to be computerized maintenance management systems (CMMs) where you get low-density data; we’re now using the most advanced blue-light scanning technology to capture the fit, form, and derive the function of parts.

We have a lot of technology available that is way beyond replicating a part. But we need to engineer solutions into that part so that we can make advancements to avoid early-life failure and bring that to bear so that our products are equal to anything from OEMs in the marketplace.

Q: What is your favorite part of day-to-day operations at your facility?

 It’s the range of subjects we cover. From an engineering point-of-view, the team can be looking at performance data in the morning; they can be working on a repair development program at lunch; we’re supporting the workshop in the afternoon; and we might be supporting a field-service technician across the world in the evening. I love being part of those conversations and being part of the problem-solving process.

Check out our video interview with EthosEnergy on 

Aftermarket, Repairs, and Overhaul Market.

Reverse Engineering Adapts with Advanced Technologies 

Turbomachinery International visited one of EthosEnergy’s Houston-based facilities: the light gas turbine workshop and performance center. During our tour, we spoke with Philip Booth, the Engineering Manager at EthosEnergy’s light turbine facility. He shares the changes he’s seen in the past several years in the repair and overhaul market and the impacts decarbonization has had on aftermarket repairs.

On our Turbo Tour of EthosEnergy, Engineering Manager Philip Booth spoke about the repair, overhaul, and aftermarket markets.

Aftermarket, Repairs, and Overhaul Market with EthosEnergy

Q: What changes have you seen over the past 5 – 10 years in aftermarket repair/overhaul? What trends are you seeing?

From an engineering point of view, we are increasingly seeing customers looking to aftermarket for our technical and engineering expertise. We answer questions about the turbines, yes, but increasingly [it’s about] balancing their plant—trying to support the customers, optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of their plant, extend the time between overhauls to bring down lifecycle costs.

Q: How has decarbonization impacted, if at all, aftermarket repairs?

 We've seen this two ways: The obvious one is as emission limits have dropped, OEMs have responded accordingly, developing new technologies. In the aftermarket, we've had to respond to that, so we're quite comfortable overhauling and testing all the technologies—conventionally fired units or wet NOx abatement engines—but increasingly we can test and overhaul right up to the sub 10 PPM NOx engines. So, we're comfortable supporting the most advanced technologies in the workshop.

Second, it's more about the life of the equipment—people are much more inclined to try to extend that as long as possible, so we have a repair-centric methodology for the overhaul process. We work with our other businesses in the Ethos network to develop advanced repair technologies, such as a part that would’ve been thrown away years ago, we're repairing and making sure it still has its effectiveness so that it's good for another four to five years of operation.

On our Turbo Tour of EthosEnergy, Engineering Manager Philip Booth spoke about the repair, overhaul, and aftermarket markets. 

Dr. Eric Petersen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Turbomachinery Laboratory Director at Texas A&M, talks about the hottest sessions and topics at the 2024 Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia.

“The hottest technical sessions are the ones that have to do with emerging technologies, for example, those related to supercritical CO

 in terms of sequestration—basically preventing CO

 from going into the atmosphere," Dr. Petersen said. "That’s a big national and international concern, so a lot of engineering companies are working toward compressing, transporting, and handling large quantities of CO

“Other hot topics are our more classic topics. There's a new generation of engineers that want to get up to speed as quickly as possible on the basics of turbomachinery. We do this through our tutorials, short courses, and discussion groups, so there's a lot to learn from the generation of experienced engineers who form our advisory committee. A lot of our presenters are key engineers in the industry who have been working in turbomachinery for over 20 years.”

Dr. Eric Petersen from Texas A&M shares what's hot at this year's show. 

What's Hot at TPS 2024 

Dr. Eric Petersen of Texas A&M shares what the hot sessions and topics are at TPS 2024. 

Conference Coverage

What's Hot at TPS 2024

 interviewed GE Vernova's VP of Engineering Gas Power, John Intile, and VP of Global Supply Chain, Shane Long, during our tour of its facility in South Carolina. In Part 2 of this two-part interview, the two talk about GE Vernova’s spin off from GE.

In Part 2 of this two-part interview, they talk about GE Vernova’s spin off from GE. 

GE Vernova VPs Excited About Spin-Off, Tackling Climate Change

Q: After 130 years, GE spun off GE Vernova. What are your teams most excited about for its power segment?

 “My team is the same as the entire organization. We're excited about being part of a purpose-built company that is made up of 12 businesses operating as one and is focused on electrifying the world while decarbonizing it. We are uniquely positioned with those 12 businesses to cover a range of product portfolios, including power generation but also transmitting that power through the grid and optimizing that power as it flows through that grid. No other company can say, from front to back, that they're better equipped to face the challenge of the energy dilemma and decarbonize while we electrify.”

“It gets me up in the morning, just thinking about solving one of the world's greatest challenges, climate change, and working on great technologies, such as hydrogen combustion, carbon capture and storage, and direct air capture. That's what gets me up in the morning—that’s what gets my team up in the morning. We are going to be able to solve these problems, and we think of this as a great opportunity and a great responsibility.”

In Part 2 of our interview with GE Vernova's John Intile and Shane Long, the two VPs share what their teams are most excited about in light of GE Vernova’s recent spin-off. 

While touring GE Vernova’s gas turbine manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina, 

 interviewed GE Vernova's VP of Engineering Gas Power, John Intile, and Shane Long, VP of Global Supply Chain. In Part 1 of this two-part interview, the duo discusses some of the top challenges of the energy transition.

In Part 1 of this two-part interview, the duo discusses some of the top challenges of the energy transition.  

GE Vernova's VP Talk Challenges with Energy Transition 

Long said: “First, let's describe the problem: We have to simultaneously electrify the world while decarbonizing it. The IEA estimates by 2040 we'll need 55% more electricity than we did in 2022. No notable goals have net-zero-carbon emissions by 2040 or 2050. So, one thing that's top of mind for challenges is just basic uncertainty—uncertainty in global policies with respect to carbon emissions; uncertainty in geopolitical tensions that exist in the world; and then uncertainty with how we can pay for this and economic policies that are needed to solve these challenges.”

Intile said: “After retiring most of the uncertainty, you start to put the plans into motion. When you think about the scale and capacity required to grow at the need of meeting the demands for what we see in 2040—project permitting, site readiness, etc.—everything it takes to get power generation up and running - it's no small feat. And that power generation is going to feed into a grid that, quite honestly, has a lot of questions about its stability. So, how do we think about challenges such as grid forming and how these electrons move from the source of generation to consumption—that's going to be a challenge that was not there in the past decade. With more renewable penetration—meaning that the power can fluctuate when the sun is not shining, when the wind is not blowing—we have to account for that, so do we have the right amount of inertia on the grid to account for that?”

In Part 1 of this two-part video interview, GE Vernova's VP of Engineering Gas Power, John Intile, and Shane Long, VP of Global Supply Chain, discuss some of the top challenges of the energy transition. 

GE Vernova VPs Discuss Challenges of the Energy Transition

 tour of GE Vernova’s gas turbine manufacturing facility in Greenville, SC, Shane Long, Vice President of Global Supply Chain at GE Vernova's Gas Power Business, gave insight into what enabled the most impactful changes in GE Vernova's gas power-generation supply chain in the last five years.

Shane LongShane Long gave some insight into what enabled the most impactful changes in GE Vernova's gas power-generation supply chain in the last five years.

GE Vernova's Shane Long Talks Gas Power Supply Chain

Long said: “Lean transformation has been the most impactful change for the gas-power supply chain in the last five years. Dating back to 2019, we embarked on a journey to transform the way we operate inside our factories as well as with our suppliers. Over the course of those five years, we've been focused on connecting operations together—creating a flow of our products through our factories, which allows us to highlight and isolate problems or inefficiencies. We’ve then organized our team around solving those problems and driving more efficiency in the day-to-day operations. Once we established flow, it allowed the team to understand where our problems were and gave them a chance to focus on root-cause understanding and eliminate those problems.

“Early on, the journey was predominantly focused inside our factory network. Over the last two to three years, we have extended that journey to include our supply base. Now we think about the solution from a value-stream perspective, so we're able to partner with our suppliers, who are critical to our success, and help them through the same steps of the journey, including waste identification, connecting operations, creating flow, and giving them a chance to problem solve, much like what we do in our factories. Now that we have the connected view of the value stream, those inefficiencies start to multiply, resulting in better safety, better quality, improved delivery, and cost productivity. We are seeing that start to emerge from our efforts over the last five years, and it's putting us in a better position to serve our customers.”

Shane Long of GE Vernova's Gas Power Business talks about the most impactful changes in GE Vernova's gas power-generation supply chain in the last five years. 


Turbomachinery International spoke with Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America, about his top takeaways from POWERGEN 2024.

Turbomachinery International spoke with Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America

VIDEO: Siemens Energy Talks Takeaways at POWERGEN 2024

What are your top takeaways from POWERGEN 2024?

"I think what I really like about this opportunity is everybody in the industry coming together because, as we say at Siemens Energy, we can’t do it alone. We wish we could do it alone, but we need to do it together. That includes our competitors, we need to be working closely with them to get things done. We need to be working with governments, we need to be working with our customers, we need to be working with media. All of us have that obligation to really be working together and that’s what I see at POWERGEN. All of us are talking and all of us are meeting with one aim, and that’s to drive this energy transition."

Turbomachinery International spoke with Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America, about his top takeaways from POWERGEN 2024. 

Video: Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy NA, Talks POWERGEN 2024 Takeaways

interviewed Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America, at POWERGEN 2024. Voorberg spoke about trends and hot topics in the industry.

Turbomachinery International interviewed Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America, at POWERGEN 2024. 

Video: Siemens Energy Talks Trends, Hot Topics at POWERGEN 2024

What trends and hot topics are you addressing at POWERGEN 2024?

"Siemens Energy is all about the energy transition, so everything we try to do focuses on the energy transition. That means making sure we have reliable power today and one of our focuses is taking care of today. It’s also about taking care of tomorrow, and what that means is taking care of things like hydrogen, renewables, our wind turbine portfolio, but also putting it all together. On a digital side, we make sure things are working together. Each individual power plant, no matter new technology or old, are working together in an efficient manner. We do that through our AI, as well as our digital products."

Turbomachinery International interviewed Rich Voorberg, President of Siemens Energy North America, at POWERGEN 2024.  

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