GE announces smart-grid appliance production in Louisville

GE chooses Louisville for new appliance production [Associated Press]

 General Electric made an exciting announcement yesterday for the Louisville area, selecting its plant in Louisville's Appliance Park for production of new energy efficient, front-loading washers and dryers. The washer and dryer line will bring over 400 new jobs to the plant. Now, while the announcement is great news for the local economy in Louisville, I'm sure you're asking yourself why the CEO of Insight is blogging about washers and dryers.

Here's the reason. Each of these new appliances will come equipped with the ability to connect to a home's smart-grid electric meter. Using a broadband connection, the smart meter communicates with a household's electric utility to determine which parts of the day have the lowest per unit electric costs. Based on that information, users can schedule their washer and dryer to operate during the time when energy costs are low. Many of these smart-grid technologies allow users to periodically check their total energy usage online from their broadband connected smart-grid meter, using that information to adjust their appliances' energy usage.

Broadband connectivity is an important component to these new smart appliances, allowing the smart-meter to communicate with the appliance and the electric utility. During the 2009 Cable Show, Broadband Nation exhibited prototypes of smart-grid appliances, demonstrating their potential to reduce household energy usage which can result in a significant savings on consumers' utility bills. 

With GE's announcement, Louisville will now be a hub in the production of this ground-breaking technology. 

Comments

[Robert]

I'm fascinated by this technology. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming years. I think there are a lot of benefits to it, and not just for the consumer.