Smart Grid Blog

General Electric has said it could start selling some of its smart appliances — dishwashers, water heaters, microwaves and other devices embedded with communications technology — as early as this summer. But how will those appliances securely and efficiently connect with the grid so that utilities can turn them down during peak electricity hours? One answer will come from Tendril, the 5-year-old Boulder, Colo.-based startup that has developed energy management software and hardware for utilities and consumers. Tendril and GE say this morning that they will co-develop software that will hook GE’s smart appliances up to the grid and the utility back office based on Tendril’s energy management platform.

It’s a big win for Tendril, which announced it raised a third round of funding of $30 million just last month. GE will be Tendril’s first appliance partner, though Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck tells us that the company plans to announce other appliance partners in the future. For GE, the Tendril partnership will bring the startup’s experience of working with — and building software for — utilities and delivering the features that utilities are particularly concerned about: security and privacy of data, cost of the system, and ease of use. Utilities that buy GE and Tendril’s offer will be using Tendril’s energy management system on the back-end.

On the consumer-facing side, GE and the utility won’t necessarily be using Tendril’s energy dashboard hardware, as GE has its own energy management dashboard. GE has said it plans to start selling the smart energy dashboard in late 2009 or early 2010 and plans to supply 500 smart dashboards for a test project for Florida utility FPL.

via GE, Tendril Partner to Hook Up Smart Appliances to the Grid.

Ok, so on the heels of Time Warner’s spinoff of AOL.com; maybe similar moves by General Electric is only wishful thinking than again maybe not given its history of spinoffs.

Just last week, GE made headlines with its new development of smart grid technologies, which it predicts will generate $4 billion in revenues.

Additionally, the GE Energy Infrastructure business unit operating in 140 countries collected $38.6 billion in revenue in 2008. It led all other GE business segments in 2008, posting 26% profit growth.

The GE Energy businesses run a wide range of industrial goods, from water desalination systems, to oil and gas drilling equipment, to the multi-ton turbines that use wind or natural gas to generate electricity. Global demand for electricity and clean water is expected to double over the next 15 years worldwide.

GE just announced it is adding a new business unit that will develop and produce sodium battery technology. Sodium-based batteries offering higher energy density and more storage.

In addition to hybrid vehicles, the batteries will be useful as backup power supplies for cell phone towers and data centers, and there will be applications in the rail, mining and marine industries.

via Should General Electric Spin Off Energy and Ecomagination Groups? | Solar Feeds News and Commentary Blog Network.

To provide consumers with information to better manage utility costs, Gothenburg Energy has ordered and will deploy 90,000 GE smart meters.

The project will meet a Swedish government mandate, which requires all utilities to have an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in place by June 1, 2009. The new meters will provide the utility with real-time data access.

“We are very impressed by the functionality and quality of the GE Smart Meter,” said Tomas Arnewid, AMI project manager for Gothenburg Energy. “We look forward to installing GE’s polyphase meter, as well”

Gothenburg Energy, Western Sweden’s leading energy company, is the first utility in Europe to implement a ZigBee-based communications infrastructure for a full rollout of an AMI system, which is focused on electricity, but is planned to include district heating, gas and water meters in the near future.

ZigBee is economical wireless mesh networking. The low cost allows this technology to be deployed widely, and its low power usage allows smaller batteries to have a longer life. ZigBee mesh networking provides higher reliability at a larger range.

“With the new AMI system in place, Gothenburg Energy will be able to provide accurate monthly bills, even down to daily consumption,” said Diarmaid Mulholland, general manager, GE Energy Services Europe. “This allows customers to be better informed about their actual consumption and then adapt their energy usage accordingly.”

GE is supplying the meters to NURI Telecom Co. Ltd., which will then install them for Gothenburg Energy as part of the overall AMI-system. Installation will be completed by the end of May.

via PR-USA.net – GE Energy Smart Meters Empower Swedish Consumers to Better Manage Energy Use.