Google's smart power

Australian
Tuesday 23/9/2008 Page: 38

General Electric, the worlds third-largest company, is working with Google to develop a so-called smart electrical grid that can make better use of power derived from renewable energy. The companies will jointly lobby US lawmakers and collaborate on technologies to make alternative energy sources, such as wind, geothermal and solar, commercially successful.

The partnership was unveiled last week at a conference at Google's offices in Mountain View, California. With a "smart" grid, people would be able to monitor individual energy use, sell energy back to utilities from electric car batteries and program appliances to turn on at times when electricity is least expensive, Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick says.

GE and Google will focus first on transmission capacity planning to enable a large-scale deployment of renewable energy generation in the US. They also plan to develop plug-in vehicle related technologies, including software and services that allow utilities to integrate the vehicles into the grid.