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Reliable, Efficient, and Continuous Operation
Energy is essential to every aspect of mining, and mining companies look to GE for the innovative and proven technologies that help assure precise, dependable energy supply, distribution and control. Power that is delivered efficiently, cost-effectively, and sustainably is indispensable to effective mining operations; GE electrical distribution products deliver it. Reliably. Safely. When you need it.
Our comprehensive offerings have cross-functional applications throughout the mine site. Systems and equipment for power generation, automation and control, medium-voltage (MV) and low-voltage (LV) equipment, transformers, distribution equipment and drives work in all the key mining functions - operations, concentration and tailings, refining and pelletization, and transportation. Synchronous generators and more than a dozen types of motors also keep the mining infrastructure running along smoothly. However harsh the mining environment, no matter where it is in the world, GE's breadth and depth of experience in electrical distribution, digital energy, and motors gives our mining customers a production flow, reliably and safely.
Safety and Protection
Mining operations depend on power that is delivered safely, as well as efficiently and reliably. They require solutions to lessen the risk of electric shock and arc-flash and arc-blast incidents for personnel operating or working near live electrical equipment.
While the odds of an arc-flash event are low-there are eight such accidents daily across all industries-the costs, in human and dollar terms are high: Those events cause one to two deaths every day, cost an average of $16 million each, and inflict burns, temporary blindness, hearing loss, concussions and/or shrapnel wounds on injured survivors.
An arc-flash hazard analysis, including a calculation of how much incident energy the hazard can generate and a labeling system that tells personnel the proper protective equipment to wear, can make workers safer and lessen the risk of an incident. That analysis is one of several studies that can drive safety by identifying reasons why outages or failures could happen, reviewing the impact and ratings of new add-on equipment, and ensuring cost-effective, stable, and efficient power-system operation.
Several solutions from GE can limit exposure to arc-flash and arc-blast. Incident energy can be minimized with sensitive protective settings and fast interruption and fault diversion mechanisms. Advanced diagnostics can prevent events from happening. Arc-resistant equipment and barriers can protect personnel. Operating and diagnostic software can operate equipment remotely.
Sustainability
Like other industries, mining is challenged to become more sustainable while decreasing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Much of the impetus for this is coming from the marketplace: Companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index outperform the general stock market, and 70 percent of customers are likely to increase their business with companies that demonstrate good corporate citizenship. Academia reflects that emerging reality as well: 54 percent of business schools require courses on sustainability.
GE's ecomagination initiative helps customers innovate with solutions that make their businesses significantly more sustainable-and more efficient and profitable. In 2010, we doubled our investment in cleaner technology and renewable energy research and development to $1.8 billion, and we intend to grow that investment to $10 billion by 2015. Since we launched the initiative in 2005, 110 GE products and solutions have been ecomagination qualified.
How can ecomagination impact mining? Consider a customer's experience with the AF-600 variable speed drives that are used in mining operations. The customer's installation of just 10 of those drives cut annual kWh consumption by 78 percent, produced $30,472 in annual energy savings, and eliminated 17 million metric tons of CO emissions per year. The project also paid for itself within nine months.
Project-Specific Support Capabilities
GE can support your specific mining project needs globally and locally with a projects team that combines domain expertise with application/technical, commercial, project management and site services resources. These broad capabilities provide our mining clients and their EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractors with wing-to-wing engagement and support early on in the project; the team assists with the pre-FEED/design stage, models various solutions, develops value-engineered alternates and transfers the expertise from these activities onto the execution phase, which concludes with site sustaining services for greenfield and brownfield applications.
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