November 2009 Vol. 236 No. 11

Projects

Satellite Connections Being Used for Remote Tuning, Testing of Indian Pipeline

In the first project of its type, GE Oil & Gas is using satellite connections to customer sites for the remote tuning and testing of gas turbine combustion systems at 11 pipeline stations owned by Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Limited (RGTIL) of Mumbai, India.

Remote tuning is being performed on 32 GE 10 and PGT25 gas turbines at pipeline compression stations located along the pipeline and is scheduled for completion at the end of November. After this date future remote tuning activity will be extended under a long-term contractual service agreement.

“RGTIL is committed to meeting aggressive gas transportation pipeline commissioning targets – so the efficient, reliable and rapid start-up of new gas turbines was critical,” said Jeff Nagel, Vice President Global Services, GE Oil & Gas. “Adding to the challenge was the fact that many of the pipeline stations are in remote locations.”

The project relies on bridge-encrypted Internet connection between servers at the GE Oil & Gas Florence, Italy headquarters and manually operated computer terminals located at the remote pipeline stations.