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
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 26, 2018/ —
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.