Ethiopia: GE Power and FieldCore successfully restart production at Metahara Sugar Factory in record-breaking 20 days
The outage execution service of two steam turbines, which lasted 20 days, succeeded in bringing back the 5000-person workforce and solving sugar scarcity for more than the 100 million people in Ethiopia
GE Power and FieldCore are proud to have helped bring sugar production back to Ethiopia
- Factory’s 5000-person workforce return to production lines after a 7-month plant downtime
- Successful execution solves sugar scarcity for Ethiopia’s more than 100 million people
GE Power (www.GEPower.com) and FieldCore (www.FieldCore.com), the company’s independent field services execution arm, have successfully restarted Metahara Sugar Factory (https://goo.gl/E4VYTU) in Ethiopia, seven months after the plant was severely damaged by a major thunderstorm. The outage execution service of two steam turbines, which lasted 20 days, succeeded in bringing back the 5000-person workforce and solving sugar scarcity for more than the 100 million people in Ethiopia.
Metahara’s Deputy Factory Manager Mr. Fahmi Dawud said the team providing solutions and getting the factory back up and running in a record 20 days was a miracle. “We had lost all hope that these extremely aged units, manufactured by Compagnie Electro Mecanique, in the 1950s, would ever come online again due to the damage. Hotels and supermarkets had run out of sugar, and it was a critical situation. We are excited to hear the machines humming again.”
“GE Power and FieldCore are proud to have helped bring sugar production back to Ethiopia,” said Elisee Sezan, General Manager, GE’s Power Services business for Sub-Saharan Africa. “We all experienced a great sense of accomplishment when the turbines were revived at startup and we heard the them working again. This project reflects the passion, the wealth of power generation experience and the world-class services capabilities that keep GE and FieldCore competitive and consistent around the globe for our customers,” he added.
The Metahara Sugar Factory is in the Oromiya Regional State, about 200 kilometers from Addis Ababa and it produces about 136,000 tons of sugar annually, representing an estimated 20% of Ethiopia’s sugar consumption.
Daniel Hailu, Executive Country Business Leader for GE’s Global Growth Organization, explained that sugar is a key commodity for Ethiopia, both for local consumption and export. He said: “It’s extremely important for the country’s foreign currency revenue stream. We are honored to participate in such a crucial project for the country.”
GE works with the government, state owned enterprises as well as private sector corporate customers in Ethiopia to support economic growth through infrastructure development in the power, healthcare and transport/aviation sectors. In 2016, GE opened a 60-capacity permanent office in Addis Ababa, and now has over 40 employees - 90% of which are Ethiopians.
For more information about this story, including video from the experts on the ground, visit: www.FieldCore.com/metahara-sugar-factory
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GE.
For more information, contact:
Anne Ezeh
GE Power Communications
Sub-Saharan Africa
+234 7031779857
Anne.Ezeh@GE.com
Laura Aresi
GE Power - Power Services
Global Media Relations Leader
+39 02 67335622
Laura.Aresi@GE.com
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About Fieldcore
FieldCore (www.FieldCore.com), a GE company, is a new, independent industrial field services company. Our goal is to deliver the highest standard of field services excellence and capabilities for GE and its customers. FieldCore brings together the field services expertise and people from both Granite Services and GE’s Power Services into one organization focused on World-Class Execution. Driven by the values of safety, integrity and quality, FieldCore is built to deliver operational excellence for customers in the power generation, oil & gas, nuclear, and wind power markets. For more information, check out www.FieldCore.com.