By Sourasis Bose
(Reuters) – Power services firm GE Vernova said on Wednesday a manufacturing issue led to a turbine blade failure at its Vineyard Wind offshore project off the coast of Massachusetts earlier this month.
“We have no indications of an engineering design flaw,” CEO Scott Strazik said on a conference call.
The turbine blade made by GE Vernova broke on July 13 and left potentially dangerous debris on beaches on the island of Nantucket. Later, U.S. authorities ordered a shutdown of the project.
The company also said it would re-inspect all its offshore wind blades to check for potential defects.
However, it said that another turbine blade breakdown at the Dogger Bank project at North Sea in May was the result of an installation failure.
GE Vernova, which became an independent company in April following a three-way split of General Electric, on Wednesday also reported a 1% rise in second-quarter revenue to $8.2 billion, compared to a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected revenue of $8.26 billion, according to LSEG data.
Electric utilities across the world are looking to increase their power generating capacity and lifting the usage of renewable energy to meet emission goals, driving demand for equipment suppliers such as GE Vernova.
The company booked a 27% rise in orders in its power segment, driven by higher orders for its gas power technology while its electrification revenue rose 19%.
It also expects its full-year revenue to trend towards the higher end of its prior forecast range of $34 billion to $35 billion.
However, its wind orders declined by 44%, primarily due to a large offshore wind equipment order it booked last year that was canceled during the fourth quarter.
The company also reported two fatalities during the quarter.
(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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