General Electric propose smart grid as-a-service
December 2, 2011
General Electric in conjunction with 3G cellular and Consert is proposing a new smart grid project whereby they will sell smart grid as-a-service.
The city utility of Norcross in Atlanta would like a smart grid but are unable to fund the purchase. GE’s Grid IQ Solutions as a Service will build it for a monthly fee, and then run it all from a giant cloud computing platform in Atlanta.
This new project could mark the start of a new trend. GE hasn't said how much it will charge Norcross per month or how many months it would take to deliver a profit on the project. But the more utilities GE signs, the more economical or profitable the solution will become.
Norcross expects to add about $1 per month to bills for the utility’s 4,200 customers to pay for the project, but customers will benefit with lower meter management costs, quicker outage management response and quicker restoration times. It is predicted that U.S. utilities will spend $8.5 billion from 2011 to 2015 on smart grid enterprise.
