Electric Cities of Georgia (ECG), GE Energy and the city of Norcross, Georgia, U.S., are working together to deploy advanced technologies to modernize the city's electric grid to power 21^st century economic growth. As a part of GE's Grid IQ: Solutions as a Service offering, these technologies will enable the city to expand its current capabilities to deliver an array of energy services to more efficiently meet residents' growing energy needs.

Community-owned utilities face the same energy challenges as the rest of the world — increasing energy demand, environmental concerns, rising costs and an aging infrastructure. GE's Grid IQ: Solutions as a Service offering is an integrated grid modernization solution specifically designed for small to mid-market utilities. It offers these utilities the opportunity to deploy smarter grid technologies that traditionally only have been cost-effective to larger investor-owned utilities. It also enables them to accelerate deployment with immediate benefits and deliver advanced capabilities while reducing and/or avoiding upfront costs. These expanded capabilities will offer Norcross residents new services and benefits:

• Access to more energy-usage information

• Faster response to power outages

• Prepayment options to better understand and control energy usage

• Online portal access to an array of information, including home energy usage, patterns and billing

• Automated meter reading.

A key partner in this effort is ECG, which provides strategic services to community-owned utility systems to contribute to the economic growth of Georgia communities and continually evaluates solutions for participant utilities' needs. ECG chose the GE solution as the best fit not only for Norcross, but also in anticipation of the future needs of other municipal utilities. With this new technology offering, Norcross and other ECG participants now will have access to advanced energy management tools and hardware that will allow them to enhance their reliable and cost-efficient energy services.

The city will begin deploying the first phase of technology during the spring of 2012, with consumers beginning to experience the benefits later in 2012.

The city of Norcross is an authentic Southern railroad town, more than 143 years old and encompassing 4.5 sq miles (11.6 sq km). Over the past few years, a revitalization effort has developed the city into an upscale community with a diverse demographic. Branding itself as “a place to imagine,” Norcross has emerged as one of the region's leaders in urban redevelopment, environmental sustainability efforts and economic development success.

For more information, visit www.ge.com.