General Electric announced this week that it has signed a two-year contract with Masdar City for purposes of testing their newest generation of appliances, with installation schedule to be completed early next year.
GE's ‘smart' appliances have undergone testing right here in the U.S. of A., in Kentucky homes, since their inception in October 2008. Come January 2010, these same refrigerators and ovens will find themselves across the Atlantic, installed in the kitchens of 10 residences in Abu Dhabi's highly-anticipated green community.
The appliances to be tested include stoves, refrigerators, and European-style washer/dryer machines that run on 220volt/50HZ platforms. Installation will include the appliances in the ten chosen homes, as well as a centralized communication system between each appliance and the city's power grid.
The crux of the ‘smart' appliance — and what puts it in a league of its own — is its network feature to an energy manager that creates a centralized communications hub between the appliance and a home smart meter. (GE's testing in Masdar will allow appliances to communicate with the city's version of a smart meter.)
GE unveiled their plans for the ‘kitchen of the future' in July 2009 from their upstate New York research facility. A ‘smart' refrigerator, stove, or dishwasher transmits real-time data to a central ‘smart meter.' The meter basically sends signals to a particular appliance based on price cues it is sent by the utility, allowing the meter to determine which hours of the day are considered peak energy usage times.
The appliance avoids running nonessential functions during peak energy usage hours, or they go into conservation mode. Conversely, appliances can switch modes to higher levels to perform energy-demanding tasks, (like a fridge making ice or running a routine defrost cycle), at off-peak times — say, in the middle of the night.
Though most homes only have one or two of each major appliance, the total energy use of thousands of high-energy sapping appliances — especially those that use heat, like clothes dryers and dishwashers — has a monumental impact.
"About 250,000 homes running their electric dryers is the equivalent to 600 megawatts of electricity use, about the same as one coal plant," says Venkatakrishan, director of research and development at GE Appliances.
Full inhabitance is projected for Masdar in 2013, so the city's grid will simulate would-be peak usage strains with projected population to test the appliances and the system.
So why would America's leading utility move its testing sites from Louisville homes to Masdar City?
Masdar City aims to be the first zero-pollution, zero-waste city in the world and a model for sustainable architecture. It projects capability to house 47,500 people — people who are delivered energy via the city's solar photovoltaic power plant, with solar canopies that provide shade as well as power. Its inhabitants will not use cars, but rather get around via electric rail. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a post-graduate research center in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will call Masdar City home, along with numerous research facilities for sustainable technology and living.
It makes perfect sense to me. . . the cleanest, greenest city in the world will of course also be equipped with the smartest and most efficient technology, including kitchen appliances.
But when the model of Masdar City was unveiled at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last January, there was an ironic undertone: this city, projected to be the cleanest city in the world, is situated in a place best know for its oil.
Irony aside, ground broke in February 2008 for construction. . . and this week, General Electric has faith in the future and in Masdar's laid claims.
It is appropriate — and telling — that a company at the forefront of energy efficiency for the machines consumers depend on most has chosen this place as its host site for testing.
Brigid
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