Environmental Leader

Within three or four years, GE is poised to reap as much as $4 billion a year in revenue from smart grid technologies, said John Krenicki, vice chairman and chief executive of GE’s Energy Infrastructure unit.

“It’s going to be a lot like wind. It’s going to take off quickly,” Krenecki said during a recent shareholders meeting, according to Reuters.

GE, which makes smart grid meters and the systems to monitor them, is involved in the ambitious $200 million Miami smart grid project.

John McDonald, GE’s general manager of marketing for GE Energy’s transmission & distribution business, spoke April 23 at a panel discussion on smart grid standards and needs at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society Executive Committee meeting in Arlington, Va.

McDonald,  a member of the Department of Energy’s Smart Grid Electricity Advisory Committee, is past president of the IEEE Power & Energy Society, a director of IEEE, a director of the GridWise Alliance and a NEMA Smart Grid Task Force member.

McDonald is going on a U.S. tour of sorts this year, giving a series of talks about smart grids under the title “Smarter Ways to a Smarter Grid” at the following events.

• May 29: One-day smart grid workshop hosted by the IEEE PES Tampa Chapter at Seminole Electric in Tampa, Fla.-open to the public
• June 23-28: IEEE Board Series Meetings in Los Angeles, Calif.
• July 26-31: IEEE PES General Meeting in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, including IEEE PES Governing Board Meeting
• Oct. 1-2: Smart Grid Course in Schenectady, N.Y.-open to the public
• Oct. 29-30: IEEE PES Executive Committee Meeting with focus on Smart Grid in Abu Dhabi
• Nov. 9-13: Modern Energy Management Systems course at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga.
• Nov. 17-22: IEEE Board Series Meetings in New Brunswick, N.J.