GE is working with the city of Yangzhou, China, to become a worldwide destination for energy efficiency, reliability and sustainability by supporting the grand opening of Yangzhou's state-of-the-art Smart Grid Demonstration Center.

The center is in line with 2009's U.S.-China Clean Energy Announcements, calling for far-reaching cooperation between the countries to promote clean energy. China also is rapidly expanding its use of renewable energy sources, which rely heavily on smart grid technologies to optimize their effectiveness.

The world-class demonstration center includes a huge array of GE products that affect energy in homes, on power lines and in a utility's network control center. It also demonstrates communications infrastructure that can enable citywide solutions beyond energy, such as voice and data applications.

Home energy technologies in the demonstration include advanced metering infrastructure smart meters — with dynamic pricing — that serve as the hub of home energy savings. Savings tools operated through the meter include home energy management systems, programmable thermostats, smart appliances that perform activities based on energy availability and cost and demand-response systems that reduce home energy usage during times of peak energy demand.

Grid infrastructure and control technologies in the demonstration include automated outage identification and restoration software, field-force automation and deployment systems and grid-wide network management software.

The initiative also will include installation and demonstration of home-based charging stations for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Teamed with dynamic pricing that encourages charging overnight, PHEVs can enable electric cars to become more commonplace. That can reduce China's need for oil while greatly lowering the carbon footprint of each mile driven.

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