General Electric’s power unit faces threat in Saudi Arabia

NEW YORK, ABU DHABI

One of General Electric Co’s largest and most valuable customers, Saudi Arabia, is lining up competitors to bid against GE for lucrative power plant work, according to five people familiar with the situation. State-controlled Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) has qualified at least two companies — Power Systems Mfg LLC and Combustion Parts Inc — to provide service or parts for some of SEC’s more than 50 GE-made F-class turbines, and is in talks with two others over investments to set up facilities to service the SEC plants over many years, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The qualifications for the first time puts SEC in position to break GE’s hold on that work by having others bid against GE on maintaining the F-Class fleet — among the largest owned by a single entity and among the most lucrative service portfolios in the industry — when the existing contracts come up, according to the sources and industry databases.