Thread regarding General Electric Co. layoffs

Wall Street Expecting Layoffs from Power

Today GE's stock hit a 9 year low, and is expected to keep falling due to its turbine failures in Texas. There will be more failures to come. USB states that GE will "require even more aggressive cost reductions" in power.

Whatever Wall Street wants, GE delivers. I'm afraid that GE will continue to cut jobs and close plants to keep the investors happy. This is only a short term solution though. The management at GE only thinks in the short term, from quarter to quarter.

GE needs to get out of this short term mindset. What are the plans for the future? What new technologies are we working on? Where do we see ourselves 10 years from now? Without a plan for the future GE is doomed to fail.

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| 2691 views | | 5 replies (last September 25, 2018) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+Vj2fEt1

5 replies (most recent on top)

"but is more profitable due to the added requirement of weight. "

Who told you that? Did you just make it up yourself. Probably.

AE's are profitable because they don't have a competitor. GT aren't being fired because they do have a competitor. Weight has nothing to do with it. Who told you that? Go find that person and smack them for helping you sound like an id--t.

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Post ID: @1wcf+Vj2fEt1

Let's just be honest, the end of the gas turbine era is caused by the onset of renewables. GE is firmly embedded in the GT/ST/GEN world. Exiting those businesses would be bloody with huge losses...who would want to buy them?

-igy: Exactly what new tech do you want GE to develop? aircraft engine technology is also changing slowly but is more profitable due to the added requirement of weight. Maybe GE should start making PV, and drive themselves further into a hole? If the answer was as simple as 'forward thinking', someone would be proposing things. What are your ideas??

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Post ID: @1vfi+Vj2fEt1

What are the plans for the future? What new technologies are we working on? Where do we see ourselves 10 years from now?

Isn't what you are asking for what BC does / did?

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Post ID: @1eqn+Vj2fEt1

GE in its beginnings was once a high tech forward thinking company. It brought power to cities at a time when electric lights didn't even exist. It created new markets and products that exist to this day.

GE has become a dinosaur. No innovation. No high tech, new ideas. No forward thinking. Only making slow, slight improvements to old technology.

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Post ID: @igy+Vj2fEt1

The move into Renewable Power is not a linear move but an exponential one where GE's market and profit is destroyed in a "Black Swan" type of change not a gradual one. GE's profit model is one where they focus on producing products at high single digit profits and then offer services at mid double digit profits. However, the Renewable Power market for the most part reduces not only the product cost but the service cost as well as the need for utilities to pay for ongoing consumption of an energy source.

What utility will decide to pick a traditional energy source if the alternative is a lower cost product, reduced need for services and no cost for the energy consumed (wind and solar)?

GE's only hope is that battery storage and peak load reduce the adoption of renewable energy sources; however, at the right cost point renewable energy can have excess capacity than peak demand and the cost will still be lower.

See the below reference from Forbes Magazine.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2018/05/06/renewable-sources-account-for-most-new-u-s-power-capacity/#4c07d9715971

May 6, 2018, 06:00pm

Renewable Sources Account For Most New U.S. Power Capacity

The history of power production through the early part of the 21st century was very much a tale of nonrenewable energy resources. Power was produced primarily by coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy at large power plants at central locations and distributed to customers via the electrical grid.

But a revolution is underway in the world's power markets.

The Rise of Renewables

The world's energy mix has evolved substantially over the past 20 years. Since 1997, global cumulative installed solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power have climbed from less than 8 GW to nearly 800 GW, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), renewables were responsible for almost 165 GW of new global power capacity in 2016—nearly two-thirds of the global total.

The U.S. has been a leader in this transition. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) "Energy Infrastructure Update" (EIU), renewable power sources accounted for half (49.9%) of the 24.6 gigawatts (GW) of new U.S. electrical generating capacity placed into service in 2017. Nearly all of the rest, 48.7%, was new natural gas capacity.

At the end of 2017, all renewables (including hydropower) accounted for more 20% of the nation's installed generating capacity -- up from 15.4% in 2012. Renewables accounted for 17.6% of total electrical generation in 2017, compared to 15.3% in 2016. The discrepancy between the 20% installed capacity and 17.6% of generation is attributable to the intermittency of renewable sources.

The Revolution Accelerates

But the first quarter of this year resulted in almost exclusively new renewable capacity. FERC's most recent EIU showed that in the first three months of this year, renewables comprised nearly 95% of new power-generating capacity.

Wind and solar were responsible for nearly all the new capacity, with new wind capacity slightly ahead of solar.

FERC expects these trends to continue for the foreseeable future. The non-profit SUN DAY Campaign analyzed FERC data and estimated that "net additions to generating capacity by utility-scale wind and solar in the U.S. could total 116 GW by December 2020 — effectively doubling their current installed capacity of 115.5 GW."

The recent past and foreseeable future in the power industry are all about this shift in the direction of renewable energy sources.

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Post ID: @gad+Vj2fEt1

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