GE Renewable Energy Launches New Suite of Digital Wind Farm Apps

General Electronic Company's (NYSE: GE) GE Renewable Energy launched a fresh suite of digital wind farm applications at the American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2016 event. According to the company, the new ecosystem is provided as part of its flexible service agreements, and that the apps are compatible with its new 2 MW and 3 MW wind turbines. The company added that these were developed to improve annual energy production (AEP) and improve wind farm profitability. General Electric said that the programs are built on the Predix software platform, the foundation for all its Industrial Internet applications, and included its specialized cyber security protection for operational technology. The business conglomerate's unit said that several of the new applications launched Tuesday were already being deployed with pilot customers, and they would be broadly available as part of its flexible service agreements starting later in the current year.The company's Onshore Wind business President and CEO, Anne McEntee, commented, "The Digital Wind Farm is changing the future of our industry. We are actively working with our customers to develop new software technology applications that generate more production, better availability and ultimately higher profit across the lifecycle of a wind farm."GE's unit also pointed out that one customer collaboration resulted in its new Energy Forecasting application. It was developed in cooperation with Exelon Power as a tactical way to enhance wind farm profitability, the app utilizes weather forecasting data to generate more accurate financial modeling and better predict the next day's grid supply and demand fluctuations. It offered real-time forecasting for identifying production ramps throughout the day to enhance profitability for dispatchers and traders in PPA or merchant energy markets.McEntee explained further, "When we initially launched PowerUp Services a few years ago, we were using historical data to make hardware and software adjustments that would yield up to five percent more AEP. We've now taken all that learning from the initial version and put it back into our software development to speed up the adjustment cycle and generate more value for our customers. Today, PowerUp Services is capable of delivering up to the double the AEP improvements of just a few years ago. That's the benefit of the Digital Wind Farm—it's always learning."On Tuesday, the stock traded 1.20 percent higher.