GE Philippines is aiming for at least a 10-percent growth this year in terms of orders and revenue on the strength of a new business segment called distributed power (small but quickly scalable power generation projects).
It is seen complementing current best-sellers such as traditional power-and-water solutions, healthcare equipment and aviation engines.
“We’re always targeting double digit growth,” Charlie S. Clement, market development director for Philippines and Guam, said in an interview.
GE Philippines booked orders at $161 million (31 percent from $123 million in 2012). Energy management solutions and aviation were the top drivers for orders.
In terms of revenue, GE Philippines booked a 10-percent growth to $212.3 million in 2013 from $193 million, driven largely by aviation engine sales.
John Alcordo, regional general manager for distributed power in Asean, said that distributed power can support many technologies, from natural gas to biomass gassification and even low-quality coal gassification.
This will help the company keep up strong growth in the Philippines, he said.
Rural electrification, a program which the Philippine government is pushing to address electricity concerns as well as the need to spread development outside cities, is also supported by distributed power, Alcordo said.
Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO of GE Power and Water’s Distributed Power, said this distributed power has great potential in growing island-markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines since they need small but scalable power facilities that generate electricity at the site where the output will be used.
Demand for distributed power is seen to be three times bigger in emerging markets compared to industrialized countries, where traditional large-scale power projects are well-established, Bolsinger said.
Globally, distributed power makes up about 33 percent of power generation facilities (the rest in large, centralized power) and in 2020 this segment is seen to make up 42 percent of installations.