General Electric Power System’s announced expansion in Bangor yesterday was very good news for the entire region. The company, which is the cornerstone of the city’s industrial base, brings with its expansion not only 160 new jobs and an expression of confidence in the area’s work force; it offers the future opportunity of highly skilled jobs and new businesses that can build on GE’s success.

Maine has seen a lot of jobs come into the state in the last five years, even as it has seen a lot of manufacturing jobs leave. This time, it gets both. Good manufacturing work at good pay for people making a commitment to a career. The $78 million project is a boost the whole area could use. And it tells other businesses looking for well-trained employees and a range of local services that this region has something attractive to offer.

GE currently employs approximately 500 people in Bangor, who make components for steam turbines used to generate electric power in nuclear, solid fuel, gas and waste-to-heat plants as well as power for ships. The Bangor facility does the machining and welding of turbine blades, rotors and nozzles, which are then sent to GE Power Systems plants in Fitchburg and Schenectady, N.Y., or are sent out to customers as spare parts. The outlook for these turbines is strong.

Last year, for the fourth year in a row, Fortune magazine named GE the most admired company in the world. It is the largest manufacturer of gas turbines, medical diagnostic imaging machines and aircraft engines. It is currently engaged in a $45 billion acquisition of Honeywell International. The Bangor plant is one part of the Schenectady division of the subsidiary, GE Power Systems, which itself has annual revenues of nearly $15 billion.

The Bangor announcement is modest in comparison to other activities in this corporation, but it is particularly important here. GE has been in Bangor since 1968, and it has grown steadily through the city’s ups and downs, coming in just as the Dow Air Base was closing and the city didn’t know what its future would look like. The relationship between Bangor and GE, by any measure, has been a success.

And it should continue. The Electric Power Supply Association reports that 230,000 megawatts of new energy capacity has been announced for construction over the next several years. And while no one expects all of that to be built, much of it will be, and some of that will need steam turbines. Certainly, current energy conditions will bring even more demand for capacity. It is an excellent opportunity GE and now increasingly will be one for Bangor, too.