SUPPLY-SIDE MANUFACTURERS BENEFIT

HEADNOTE

GE, ABB capitalize on new technology, global demand.

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WHILE IT'S NOT LIKELY THAT MORE than 100 new power plants

in the United States would mean lower prices for manufacturers that are major consumers of energy, an upsurge in power plant construction does stand to benefit such firms as General Electric Co. and ABB Ltd., the North American unit of Zurich-based ABB Group., which make such gear as turbines, generators, transformers and controls.

Although GE's interest in coal-fired plants has traditionally been as a supplier of steam turbines and generators and more recently as a provider of pollution monitoring and other services, "what is more exciting is 'clean coal' and our gasification technology," relates David Slump, chief marketing officer for Atlanta-based GE Energy. (Clean coal is technology that burns coal more effibiently and produces fewer emissions.) "There are more than a hundred [new power plants being considered] and we are working down the list [to see] which are applicable to clean coal," he says. "We're creating the market opportunity; we're telling the world about clean coal."