hhgreen

GE, Whirlpool Corporation and a number of other companies announced the creation of a new collaborative effort aimed at demonstrating the role of smart grid technologies and practices in the achievement of climate change goals. Called the Smart Green Grid Initiative (SGGI), the effort will include educational events at the upcoming climate change meetings in Copenhagen, December 7 – 18 sponsored by the United Nations. SGGI has been approved by the United Nations to be an official smart grid delegation to the Copenhagen meetings. SGGI will also be sponsoring educational events in the U.S. in the weeks preceding the meetings in Copenhagen.

"We launch this effort today to try to illustrate the relationship between a smart grid with smart products and technologies, and the global effort to mitigate climate change," said Jeff Noel, corporate vice president, Communications and Public Affairs, Whirlpool Corporation. "Complementary policies in these areas benefit consumers, create jobs, and reduce environmental impact. Today, these two areas are for the most part in different silos, and there is not enough awareness or understanding of how important development of the smart grid can be to meeting climate change goals."

SGGI will seek to help government, industry and policy makers see smart grid technologies and practices within a larger perspective. SSGI will try to demonstrate that demand response and energy storage solutions can dynamically complement renewable resources, and most important avoid the building of new fossil-fuel power plants to fill the availability gaps and peak needs.

SGGI will also address consumers. Research has shown that electricity customers with energy usage information become more energy efficient overall by upwards of 15%. This new knowledge will help build demand for energy efficient appliances and propel energy savings through better use of the products.

Leading American manufacturers including Whirlpool and GE are at the forefront of the initiative by building appliances that are not only more efficient, but smarter, taking some of the burden off consumers. Jim Campbell, President & CEO of GE Consumer & Industrial, the GE division innovating demand response appliances, said, "Smart appliances connected to the grid can schedule energy intensive activities to take place during lower energy usage periods like evenings and nights, when some renewable resources like wind are more likely to be available."

Supporters of the Smart Green Grid Initiative include both Utilities and Technology companies. Included in the group are National Grid, Southern Company, AEP, Google, LG Electronics, Landis + Gyr, Echelon, Tendril, Ice Energy, Enspiria, eMeter and Itron. In addition, the Demand Response and SmartGrid Coalition and the Demand Response Coordinating Committee, the leading groups in the U.S. focused on promoting the development of the Smart Grid and smart grid practices like Demand Response, will be supporting SGGI.

hhgregg applauds the initiative of these electronics companies and is proud to carry Energy Star Rated products by Whirlpool, GE and LG.