GE unveils 300-MW wind turbine order, cybersec deal with Invenergy

The renewables business of US conglomerate General Electric (NYSE:GE) on Wednesday announced an order for 300 MW of wind turbines from US clean energy company Invenergy LLC, along with a fleet-wide cybersecurity deal.

GE will supply 120 units of its GE2.5-116 90-metre (295 ft) turbines for the Santa Rita wind farm Texas. The 300-MW wind farm in Reagan county is expected to come online by the end of 2017.

While the contract builds on a long relationship between the companies, this marks the first time Invenergy is using GE's 2.5-116 turbines. Part of the wind turbine blades will be made by GE's recently acquired LM Wind Power. The order includes GE's Digital Wind Farm solutions.

In a separate announcement, GE Renewable Energy said it has signed a cybersecurity agreement to secure Invenergy's entire fleet of wind turbines. The agreement, worth more than USD 13 million (EUR 11.6m) over 10 years, was touted as one of the largest cybersecurity deals in the history of the industrial Internet. It includes upgrading Invenergy's legacy controls, and protecting its network security with a security solution for industrial and process control environments, called Opshield, provided by Wurldtech, a GE company. GE and Wurldtech will also be carrying out software maintenance, updates and patches for Invenergy over the 10-year term.

A framework has also been signed to add future wind farms to the network.

"As online threats multiply and the electric grid goes digital, cyber security is a top priority for Invenergy," commented Jim Shield, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Invenergy.

The 300-MW Texas order comes on the heels of GE announcing a major deal in Europe. Its wind turbines were selected by Forestalia, the biggest winner in Spain's recent renewable energy auction, for a 1.2-GW wind project secured in the auction, and an earlier 300-MW project.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.890)

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