MOST CREATIVE
PEOPLE 2017 Ganesh Bell
Ganesh Bell
Chief Digital Officer, GE Power, GE
For
rethinking the grid
As GE Power’s first chief digital officer, Ganesh Bell is leading
the 125-year-old company—known for building industrial turbines and
generators—toward a software-driven future, where data analysis is as
important as energy-producing hardware. He began by aggregating the data from
sensors on machines used by GE Power customers, which include Japan’s Futtsu
natural-gas power station and the New York Power Authority, operator of the
Niagara Power Project, among other clean-energy plants. Then he ran that
information through GE’s five-year-old industrial operating system, called
Predix, which analyzes machine data on everything from jet engines to
freight trains, to offer energy customers vital, actionable information.
Over the past couple of years, Bell and his team have built suites of apps to help
utilities such as wind farms and steam plants monitor their equipment
(GE-made or otherwise) and notify workers when something is awry. They can
also incorporate external information, like weather and energy prices, to
predict a machine’s performance. Bell recently opened Predix to developers,
allowing clients to create custom apps. The effort is paying off: In 2016,
revenue from GE’s digital services hit $3.6 billion—up 16% from the year
before—thanks in part to the power segment’s rapid growth as more customers, such
as U.S. energy giant Exelon and Qatar’s RasGas, sign on to use Predix
technology in their facilities. Just as significant: Bell’s software is
helping these utilities become more productive. “Thomas Edison developed the
grid for a different world,” says Bell. “We have to be more agile. By going
digital, we can modernize the grid structure and improve efficiency and
reliability.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/person/ganesh-bell
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