GE Vernova Updates Houston Learning Center, Launches New Education Programs

GE Vernova successfully executed a major modernization project at its Houston Learning Center (HLC), a flagship global training facility for power generation and services professionals. In addition, the company announced new education partnerships with three Houston area school districts at the “Powering Progress: Honoring Our Legacy, Building Our Future” event. These initiatives fall under GE Vernova’s multi-year capital investment strategy across manufacturing, services, and innovation.

“GE Vernova is committed to helping build the workforce of the future and reflects our belief that world-class technologies require a world-class workforce,” said Steve Kessinger, Vice President of Global Services, GE Vernova Gas Power. “By investing in facilities like the HLC and expanding our training capabilities, we’re helping ensure our teams, customers, and partners are equipped to meet the growing global demand for skilled energy professionals to support the energy systems of today and tomorrow.”

The company’s HLC modernization includes a facility expansion, increasing its capability to train thousands of technicians, engineers, and customers per year. GE Vernova also improved classrooms, added new simulation environments, and built hands-on training bays for the 7HA.03 gas turbine. These updates allow the company to scale workforce training in support of its expanding global services footprint and installed base.

By increasing training capacity and deploying advanced simulation and hands-on learning environments, the HLC can accelerate technician readiness, reduce time to productivity, and support the execution of long-term service agreements. A scalable training infrastructure may help meet growing customer demand, support services backlog growth, and strengthen GE Vernova’s ability to provide high-quality services across its global fleet.

“We’re proud to continue investing in advanced training assets and collaborations with local school districts like Deer Park, Channelview, and Alief to strengthen our pipeline of talent needed to support customers today and the energy transition ahead,” said Jim Vono, One Field Services Leader, GE Vernova Gas Power. “These collaborations aim to expose students to real-world industrial environments, advanced energy technologies, and career pathways in high-demand technical fields.”

The HLC serves as a base for GE Vernova’s Career and Technical Education collaborations, introducing students and early-career professionals to hands-on technical pathways in the energy sector. It assists thousands of learners annually and provides training across gas turbines, steam turbines, generators, control systems, and more.

These workforce and training investments complement GE Vernova’s broader global capital strategy, including recent announcements to invest nearly $600 million in U.S. factories and facilities and additional investments in advanced repair capabilities and technologies.

Coryton Power Plant

Earlier this week, GE Vernova completed a major outage and installed two high-efficiency (HE) upgrades at InterGen’s 800-MW combined-cycle Coryton Power Plant, located 30 miles east of London on the River Thames. The HE upgrades improve performance via technology breakthroughs across gas turbine, compressor, and combustor, allowing Coryton to generate up to 85 MW of additional power and surpassing the expected 77 MW.

The upgrades provided plant performance that exceeded expectations, improving unit efficiency by 2.46% and extending maintenance intervals. Also, the modernization project is expected to reduce approximately 67,500 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year, aligning with the United Kingdom’s goal to lower the national carbon footprint by requiring less fuel to generate the same amount of power.