GE Smart Meter

As a product of the 80’s, I know not of the hardship of life without electricity. Life for me has always been padded and punctuated with the luxury of the television, the computer, the radio and other electrically powered devices that I consider essential. It is then no surprise that I often take this small detail for granted. My parents, however, are always quick to point out their childhood memories of oil lamps and kerosene stoves. Thanks to them, I am now highly conscious of my consumption of resources. Perhaps this is why I am particularly interested in GE’s Ecoimagination program.

According to Steve Fludder, GE’s vice president of Ecoimagination, ’smart grid enhancements to the power grid [through the use of their smart meter technology] could result in a five percent reduction of power usage – an amount equal to 41 gigawatts in the United States… The conserved power saved would be equal to the amount consumed by more than 12 million homes over a year’s time.’ (Smart Meters)

GE has also announced their plans to bring this technology to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The Olympic Village, where athletes will reside for the duration of the games, will be centrepiece of their implementation plans. Smart meters will be fitted into all the buildings and information output by the smart meters will be displayed for the public to analyse energy consumption for each building. Displaying this smart meter functionality at the Olympics could potentially introduce the technology to a huge audience around the world, and I hope that it will also be adopted in Vancouver in the near future.

GE has set up a website to accompany this initiative, complete with interactive elements to help you understand the (positive) impacts of such technology: