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GE’s Smart Grid Strategy: Cool Little Pieces, No Glue By Jesse Berst Jul 13, 2010 - 4:00:26 PM
. What is GE’s Smart Grid strategy? How do the various pieces in its broad portfolio tie together? Where is it headed? You wouldn’t know from the random series of announcements we saw today. There was a GE press release about a device that helps consumers monitor their energy usage, another focused on its new electric vehicle charger, an announcement about a competition to encourage innovation in grid technology, and a release from a partner about a joint venture with GE in the communications space.
Now I believe GE can and will play an important role in the Smart Grid, as I noted in a column about the company’s evolving strategy back in August. But I’m still not certain the company’s various divisions are talking together enough to know exactly what that role will be. So instead we see sporadic announcements about cool little pieces – but nothing about the glue that holds it all together.
Below are observations on today’s announcements; please add your own comments in the Talk Back form at the bottom of the page.
Nucleus – for Home Energy Management
Ever glanced at ads for weight-loss supplements? They are long on unlikely promises (dramatic changes in your physique!). And short on specifics, masking their ingredients behind vague pseudo science (extreme potency delivered by a carefully formulated key driver!).
Apparently, a refugee from the weight-loss industry is now at GE writing press releases. How else to explain the overblown promises in today's Nucleus announcement -- the future of home energy management! And the hiding of technical information. For instance, GE describes the Nucleus simply as “an affordable, innovative communication and data storage device.” Okay, how affordable? What kind of communications? What kind of storage? GE seemingly shares with the Wizard of Oz the belief that commoners shouldn’t know what’s behind the curtain.
Even following the embedded links in the release doesn’t help unless you are determined. You are initially taken to Web pages populated by happy consumers, their well-scrubbed faces alight with the joy of having a Nucleus in their lives.
Dig around and you may eventually spot the link for the product details. There you learn that the device -- which won’t ship until 2011 -- uses ZigBee to gather information from meters and appliances and WiFi or Ethernet to communicate with a home PC. The included software shows a variety of tracking and comparison screens. I believe that consumers want set-and-forget convenience. GE believes they want to study their energy usage in the same excruciating detail as day traders tracking stocks.
The unit requires a broadband connection in the home, so low-income families are not invited to this GE party.
WattStation – for EV Charging
GE is entering the charging fray with early entrants such as Coulomb Technologies and Better Place, offering what it’s calling GE WattStation. It’s a sleek, fast, curbside charger. But the real issue isn’t which plug to use in garages and along streets. It’s the software up in the cloud that has to figure out:
1) Who to bill, even if the customer is from a different service territory
2) How much to bill based on time-of-use rates
3) When to charge to get the customer back on the road when desired while still allowing utilities to do smart charging. Smart charging advances or delays charging to lower energy use during peak events and to buffer intermittent wind and solar as they bounce up and down
Neither GE’s WattStation release nor its site gives any of these important details (that we could find), but you are invited to follow them on Twitter. Slim comfort for utility professionals charged with making key architectural decisions that will reverberate for years or even decades.
$200 Million – for Breakthrough Ideas
Since the early 2000s, I’ve been working to help the Smart Grid morph into an Internet-style opportunity for entrepreneurs. Today many of the world’s best innovators spend time inventing Facebook applications or iPhone games. We need some of their brilliance applied to the Smart Grid -- and that will only happen if they become convinced they can strike it rich in this sector.
This high-profile competition that GE announced with four venture capital partners seems likely to grow the perception that Smart Grid is the Next Big (wealth-building) Thing. Unlike Richard Branson’s self-serving carbon challenge, GE’s version does not ask for confidential information and does not ask entrants to transfer their intellectual property. What it does ask for are breakthrough ideas to power a more efficient electric grid.
Spectrum Bridge Partnership – for Mission-Critical Apps
As we do more and more things wirelessly, the spectrum is starting to fill up. GE and its partner Spectrum Bridge propose to take advantage of an under-utilized licensed band in the 218-219 MHz range. Called IVDS, it was originally designed for short-range communications. The GE-Spectrum Bridge joint venture makes it available for SCADA, distribution automation and AMI backhaul. These kinds of mission-critical applications often justify the additional license fees (as compared to free, unlicensed spectrums such as those used by WiFi.)
Now it's your turn. What do you think GE’s end-to-end strategy is … or should be? Use the Talk Back form below to add your thoughts.
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