GE and the government of Ontario have announced a new Grid IQ Innovation Center, the first center of its kind for GE in Canada, to be located in Markham, Ontario. The $40 million project will be supported by a $7.9 million grant from the government of Ontario.

Grid IQ is GE's companywide commitment to solving customers' toughest challenges with more efficient, reliable and sustainable energy solutions. The 200,000-sq ft (18,580-sq m) center will develop and manufacture grid modernization technologies and will encompass a global testing and simulation laboratory. The building is expected to open in July 2012.

The new center builds on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) GE signed with the Ontario government in September 2009 to partner and invest long-term within the province to establish new or expanded centers of technology and advanced manufacturing. Under the MOU, GE announced the establishment of the company's first Digital Pathology Center of Excellence in Toronto and a $100 million investment in the GE Motors' Peterborough facility.

GE's Grid IQ Innovation Center will drive research and development, create new innovation-related jobs and facilitate global collaboration. GE will add approximately 146 new jobs over the next four years. Additional indirect jobs in high-tech research, design manufacturing and construction are anticipated.

GE's Grid IQ Innovation Center should become a Canadian destination for companies and countries seeking to upgrade their energy systems. A testing and simulation laboratory can be used by global utilities to learn how the center's technologies can help their specific infrastructures with simulations and testing before deployment.

New products and solutions created at the site will be supported by manufacturing. The center will include expanded manufacturing facilities for GE's Smart Grid Automation products, which will relocate from Calgary, Alberta.

To learn more, visit www.ge.com.