CNG in a Box Leads GE Strategy

Posted by cngcenter on Jul 4, 2013 in Uncategorized

The latest customer for GE Oil & Gas’ CNG In A Box fueling station is ready-mix concrete firm Ozinga Bros., of Mokena, Ill., which has pledged to switch its fleet of 500 trucks to CNG by 2020. Ozinga plans to buy four CNG In A Box fueling systems, which list at $750,000 each, as well as trucks, loaders and other CNG equipment with finance from GE Capital.

CNG In A Box

GE says that its CNG In A Box fueling system, formally launched last September in collaboration with Chesapeake Energy, is more than a standardized, plug-and-play fueling system. It is a customer’s entry point onto GE’s “Industrial Internet,” and can generate management data as far reaching as estimating daily cash flows for a fleet operator’s treasury department.

A pilot program, started three months ago, is doing just that for a fleet of pickup truck and light utility vehicles that fill up via CNG In A Box, says Ujjwal Kumar, business leader for North American products at GE Oil & Gas. There are, he notes, ten CNG in a Box systems in the field, with another 25 sold and awaiting deployment.

GE’s strategy is nothing less than to revolutionize the supply chain for CNG, while helping to finance it. The basic premise is to offer operators a completely-GE made and integrated, pre-configured and factory-tested CNG In A Box delivery system, greatly simplifying site construction and keeping customization to a minimum.

GE will then monitor its “fleet” of near-identical CNG in a Box units to gather the operational data needed to persuade bankers and insurers alike that they are a good risk. For the banker, the unit is an asset that can be moved; for the insurer, it will be shown to be safe and lead to massive reductions in rates, Kumar says.

“We’ve moved the fueling station from the project world to the product world. We bring advantages in cost and delivery time,” he says.

For the customer, GE can monitor every activity in the CNG in a Box system and its interaction with electricity and gas suppliers, and match it to fleet data, facilitating financial planning and analysis.

GE (Booth 425) is now in discussions with fuel network companies to sell-on CNG In A Box. “We don’t want to own them,” says Kumar – but GE would still monitor and manage data from them.