GE plans to channel $1 billion into a new type of energy efficiency, generation and storage venture that combines financing with GE’s physical and digital capabilities.
The company announced the new business Tuesday at its fourth annual Minds + Machines 2015 in San Francisco, an event focused on the industrial Internet.
GE said that the new organization will serve commercial & industrial, utility, and municipal customers, including hospitals, universities, retail stores and cities. The company intends to provide them with the “hardware and software they need to be more reliable, more efficient and more profitable,” according to a news release from the event
Additional details will follow in the coming weeks, GE said.
GE will launch the business with $1 billion and will leverage GE financing, putting the organization “on track to quickly establish a leadership position in the fast-growth energy efficiency market,” a company said.
“GE is committed to lead as the industrial and digital worlds collide. We plan to generate outcomes alongside our customers,” said Jeff Immelt, GE chairman and CEO. “A new day is upon us. Now is the time for industry.”
Separately the company also unveiled “the digital power plant,” software and hardware that creates a kind of “digital twin” of a power plant, basically modeling its present state.
GE said that the technology lets utilities monitor and manage every aspect of a power plant’s ecosystem to generate electricity cleanly, efficiently and securely with real-time control.
The digitalized power plant will use GE’s Predix industrial data platform to continuously improve its assets and operations.
GE and Exelon will pilot the system on nuclear, gas and wind power projects. PSEG is testing it on gas-fired plants.
For merchant generators, every bit of efficiency and productivity matters to our bottom line,” said Rich Lopriore, president of PSEG Fossil. “Having the best power generation technology—both physical and digital—is critical to our competitiveness.”
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