France’s nuclear plants are a safety threat because of their excessive reliance on outsourcing, the risk of terror attacks and a lack of operational rigor, a parliament report said. EDF has had to close several reactors and delay the opening of a new one because of quality issues with some suppliers. “An excessive reliance on outsourcing, with up to 80 percent of maintenance handled by contractors, was leading to a loss of internal competence at the utility.” — Reuters

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority to integrate GE’s Predix IoT platform into Dubai power plants – Tahawultech.com

Voith supports hydropower plant operators in discovering potentially dangerous incidents by detecting sound anomalies, classifying them into warnings and alarms, as well as allocating them to specific equipment, which enables the derivation of information for smarter recommendations and decisions with regard to maintenance and operations –Manufacturing and Engineering Magazine

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) has received an order from Gurmat Electric Generation Co. Inc. (Gurmat), an independent power producer (IPP) in Turkey, for long-term parts management and services at the Germencik Geothermal Power Plant –Asia One

Enel chose AVEVA’s predictive asset analytics solution to remotely monitor 21 thermal generation plants across Europe and South America, a total capacity of 18.5 GW. The software will provide early warning notification of potential future equipment issues. –  Automation

GE will collaborate with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) on the development of an end-to-end power intervention (EEIP), in efforts to help boost power supply in Nigeria. – ESI Africa

Siemens made its plant in Görlitz, Germany the focal point of its global industrial turbine business -in order to save it from closure. The plant plans to break even by 2020 – Wirtschaftswoche (in German)

Infosys announced that it is partnering with Siemens to develop new applications for MindSphere, the latter’s open cloud-based IoT platform. Applications around Predictive Maintenance and Augmented Reality appear to be of particular interest – reported by Nasdaq

GE Power has been chosen by Andritz and Dongfang Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. to provide electrical solutions for the 3.6GW Fengning pumped storage plant located in the Hebei Province in China – which is expected to be the largest scheme of its kind once complete. – Water Power Magazine

Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro A.S.A. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Hydro Energi AS has entered into a new power agreement with Tonstad Vindpark AS to fuel its aluminium-smelting operations with wind-generated energy –Aluminium Insider

In an effort to increase the visibility of its water network, Jyväskylä Energy Group, the water utility of Central Finland’s largest city, has turned to Israeli water network management company TaKaDu. Jyväskylä Energy Group will be TaKaDu’s first customer in Finland.-Israel 21c

A China-Egypt joint venture, XD-EGEMAC High Voltage Electric Equipment Co., has successfully established its leading position in the high-voltage equipment manufacturing in Egypt, while helping end the Arab country’s previous reliance on imports of top-end transformers. The JV has increased the percentage of local manufacturing of high-voltage equipment up to 40 percent so far. – CGTN Africa

In 2017, GE and Baker Hughes merged their businesses to create an integrated upstream/downstream services and equipment provider for the O&G industry. GE now is planning a spin-off of the combined entity. – Oilman Magazine

Bilfinger looks to expand its footprint in the UK North Sea by further developing its maintenance, modifications and operations services, including through an acquisition –Energy Voice

Analytics in the Digital Oilfield: Optimizing oil and gas equipment can be an impossible task when critical questions about health and performance cannot be answered: Is this well approaching the end of its life? Are we prepared to react to market changes? Why did this piece of equipment fail? When will it be back up and running? How long until the next equipment failure? – E&P

Field Life Extension Through Digitalization –E&P

The Changing Face of Maintenance: Modern technologies, such as smart sensors, data analytics, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) and machine learning, are changing the face of maintenance to help chemical processors ensure they are spending their maintenance dollars in the wisest way possible. While it may seem like a data-centric maintenance practice will require a lot of high-tech equipment, experts say chemical processing facilities likely have some of the necessary pieces already in place, and a variety of approaches allows users to go as light or as heavy as is desirable. –Chemical Engineering

Praxair to sell European assets to Taiyo Nippon Sanso ahead of Linde merger – chemical engineering

China’s Electric motor producer, Wolong Electric Group Co. has acquired the Small Industrial Motor (SIM) division of GE. – Herald Finance

Rolls Royce sells its ship design and equipment business to Kongsberg Gruppen of Norway as part of revamp and efforts to reduce debt – Bloomberg

Exxaro Resources breaks ground at new ‘digital’ coal mine in Mpumalanga – First mine with digital twin in Africa –Mining Review

Omron has announced a new generation of Scara robots which, it claims, are the first with a built-in condition monitoring and the ability to indicate when they need attention – Drives and Controls

Andritz AG has signed a merger agreement to acquire Xerium Technologies Inc. Xerium, based in Youngsville, N.C., is a global manufacturer and supplier of machine clothing and roll covers for paper, tissue and board machines, including maintenance and after-market services. The transaction is valued at about $833 million –Pulp and Paper Canada

ABB completes $2.6 billion acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions –Plant Services

Retailer Lidl buys major German waste management company – a first for the industry – Letsrecycle.com

Southern California Edison (SCE) is adding thousands of additional charging stations to their Charge Ready program, a pilot program to increase availaility of charging ports for passenger electric vehicles (EV). Since 2016, SCE has installed 1,000 charging stations throughout their service area of Southern and Central California. –Daily Energy Insider

The electric vehicle (EV) charging market is “unlikely to deliver” the charging infrastructure needed in the UK to accommodate predicted take-up, according to National Grid’s strategy and corporate development lead for EV –Current

Volvo has unveiled its upcoming car-sharing service called M, a mobility brand that will debut in the US and Sweden next year. Volvo M is being developed as an on-demand car-sharing service that will provide motorists a dependable and convenient alternative to owning a car – Industry Leaders Magazine

VW to kick off electric car sharing venture in Germany in 2019 – E&E News

Ride sharing: From mobility platforms to social networks – Economic Times

Both MROs and OEMs are going after a bigger slice of a pie that is growing larger, the increasingly important U.S. outsourced MRO market. The top-ten U.S. passenger airlines notched up their outsourced share of maintenance spending 1% to 48% in 2017, according to FAA Form 41 data. Over the five years from 2012 through 2017, the outsourced share rose nearly 3% from 45% at the beginning of the period. –MRO-Network.com

Siemens makes three acquisitions of smaller companies that specialize in Internet of Things (IoT) controls of lighting and building operations: Oakland-based startup Building Robotics, which markets an app called Comfy that makes it easier for office workers to interact with lighting and building systems; J2 Innovations, a Los Angeles area company that makes software for building automation and the IoT; Enlighted, a Silicon Valley company highly regarded in the smart lighting controls arena. “Enlighted has a strong footprint in revolutionizing building intelligence by developing a multi-sensor-based IoT platform, using the power of data,” Matthias Rebellius, CEO of Siemens Building Technologies, said at the time of the agreed acquisition, which is scheduled to close in the third quarter. “With this move, we are demonstrating our commitment to drive digitalization in the smart building industry.” –LEDs Magazine

Homee, an on-demand property maintenance platform that’s available via a smartphone app, announced recently that it’s planning to expand to new markets thanks to a new round of financial backing. The company disclosed recently that it raised $11 million in Series A funding, bringing its total capital raise to $15 million.-Housingwire.com

 

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