GE announced today that by 2015 it is developing a turn-key product portfolio that will empower consumers to build, to efficiently consume, manage and generate electricity to enable an overall net zero annual energy cost.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--14 July 2009-- GE announced today that by 2015 it is developing a turn-key product portfolio that will empower consumers to build -- both new home builders and existing homeowners -- to efficiently consume, manage and generate electricity to enable an overall net zero annual energy. In addition to GE's current portfolio of energy-efficient lighting and appliances products and demand response technology that GE is currently developing, GE plans to develop residential power generation products like solar PV and residential wind products, well positioning GE to make the net zero energy home a reality.
"We have a long, trusted relationship with consumers, strong presence with home builders, demand response appliance technology and, the extremely critical, smart grid technology leadership of GE Energy that makes the GE net zero energy home an exciting prospect for our future growth," said GE Consumer & Industrial President and CEO James Campbell.
The GE net zero energy home offerings will be comprised of three major groups within the product portfolio: energy efficient products, energy management products and energy generation/storage products.
Energy Efficiency Products: GE's portfolio of energy- efficient appliance and lighting products will help enable the net zero energy home by reducing energy consumption in the home.
Energy Management/Demand Response Appliances: GE demand response products will enable consumers to manage their costs and energy consumption while helping reduce utility demand peaks, thereby reducing the need for more power generation -- depending on utility participation.
Residential housing consumes 37 percent of the electricity produced in the US. Appliances, Lighting and HVAC represent 82 percent of electricity consumed in the home. A recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report has identified that residential demand response programs represent the largest potential reduction in U.S. peak demand. The potential of residential demand reduction programs represents approximately a 7 percent reduction in total US peak demand, or 65 GW over the period 2009-2019. This avoided demand is equivalent to the generation capacity of 108 coal plants (600 MW typical coal plant).
Example: There are about 60 Million U.S. homes with electric tank hot water heaters, if 10 percent installed a GE Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heater, this would save 15 Billion kWh annually of energy. In addition, the demand response capabilities of the GE Hybrid during peak demand time could reduce the energy consumption associated with the 6 Million units by as much as 22.8 Gigawatts or the equivalent of reducing the generating capacity of 40 coal plants during peak demand time.
Example: Based on data from the Olympic Peninsula, Gridwise Test Bed demonstration project,consumer awareness created by Time of use pricing (TOU) & Real Time pricing (RTP) has shown significant consumer savings. Consumers under a TOU/RTP billing plan supported by enabling technologies, such as pricing communication, a home energy display, smart thermostats, and smart demand response appliances saved as much as 27-30 percent of their monthly bill.
Brattle report-- The power of Experimentation -- New Evidence on residential demand response, May 11, 2008, Ahmad Faruqui, Sanem Sergici
Distributed Generation/Storage
About GE Consumer & Industrial
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliances, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and ecomaginationSM, a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE), imagination at work, sells products under the Monogram®, Profile™, GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™, Reveal® and Energy Smart® consumer brands, and Entellisys®, Tetra®, Vio™ and Immersion® commercial brands. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.
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Kim Freeman
GE Consumer & Industrial - Americas
[email protected]
502-452-7819