GE in $500 mln Equipment Deal with Exelon

General Electric Co said on Monday it has won an order worth more than $500 million to provide power-generating equipment to U.S.-based Exelon Corp , including four of GE's highest efficiency gas turbines.

Exelon said it was planning to build two combined-cycle gas turbine units in Texas using the GE technology.

The new units are being built at Exelon's Colorado Bend site in Wharton County, Texas, and at its Wolf Hollow natural gas plant in Granbury, Texas. Each will add about 1,000 megawatts of capacity to the respective sites.

GE said it was the first U.S. order for GE's highest efficiency HA gas turbine, after winning customers from Japan, France and Russia, and now has orders for 13 units.

GE said the H-class turbine being sold to Exelon converts more than 61 percent of gas to electricity. The turbine allows for more than $8 million in annual fuel savings per gas turbine compared to the older F-class technology, GE said.

"With these more efficient turbines, they're just going to use less fuel, and so that helps the consumer and the cost of electricity go down," Victor Abate, president of power generation products at GE Power & Water, said in an interview.

The H-class turbine stands as one of the important products as GE invests further in its power business.

The U.S. conglomerate earlier this year agreed to buy the power arm of France's Alstom for $16.9 billion, GE's largest ever deal.

Aside from the four 7HA gas turbines, GE also will supply Exelon with two steam turbines and six generators. The equipment is expected to ship in 2016, GE said.

By Lewis Krauskopf