OREANDA-NEWS.  As the number of mission-critical facilities continues to grow exponentially worldwide, so does the need for efficient, reliable power to these essential applications. For example, the data center industry has seen its electrical use double from the years 2000 to 2005—to 247 terawatt hours per year. In addition, the amount of information managed by data centers is expected to grow by a factor of 50 over the next decade. Helping to address these growing power concerns, GE (NYSE: GE) has unveiled its new Critical Power business. The business provides data centers, hospitals, telecommunication networks and other mission-critical facilities with end-to-end solutions to keep electricity flowing to crucial equipment during power disturbances and outages. The announcement was made today at the Datacenter Dynamics conference in New York.

“The focus of GE’s Critical Power business is to help customers reduce energy consumption and minimize the operating costs associated with supplying power to their mission-critical applications,” said Jeff Schnitzer, general manager of GE’s Critical Power business. “We support our customers from the front-end design through the lifecycle of the equipment to help them realize the greatest benefit from their investment.”

The products and services included in GE’s Critical Power portfolio provide highly efficient and reliable power to applications that need it most. Examples of these critical applications include:

Data Centers—Currently, information technology and telecommunications facilities account for approximately 120 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, or 3 percent of all U.S. electricity use.[1] Not only can this put a strain on the local grid, but it also drives operational costs to unprecedented heights. GE has been working with network providers to improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of their data centers. For instance, GE’s ENERGY STAR™-rated, eBoost-equipped uninterruptable power supply (UPS) can increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption and costs, allowing for substantial savings over time.
Healthcare Facilities—GE’s automatic transfer switches and UPS technology provide critical backup power in the event of a power disruption, ensuring that patients’ crucial medical equipment stays on. This technology has been installed in Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center to supply emergency power in the event of a local grid disruption.
Financial Markets—GE’s Critical Power business also plays a major role in keeping the power on in financial institutions, such as banks and stock markets around the globe. Its power-switching and UPS technologies ensure real-time trading and currency exchanges remain unaffected in the event of a power disturbance.
Telecommunications—Products and services from GE’s Critical Power business are used by telecom, wireless and cable broadband service providers to ensure an uninterrupted power supply and to convert AC power from a primary power source, such as the electric utility grid, into precisely controlled DC power used for datacenters, central offices, cell towers, outside-plant fiber optics and customer premise facilities.
Embedded Power—GE’s Critical Power business designs, manufactures and markets embedded power modules to provide AC/DC standard, as well as custom power supplies and DC/DC circuit board mounted power modules for use within other original equipment manufacturer (OEM) equipment. These embedded power products are used in the healthcare, communications, computing, industrial and data storage markets.

Serving the global market and headquartered in Plano, Texas, GE’s Critical Power business includes power-switching products, UPS technology, DC energy systems and embedded power supplies such as board-mounted power and front-end rectifiers. Combining these solutions into a single unified business enables GE to serve the power needs of mission-critical applications, from the building infrastructure (UPS, switchgear or DC energy systems) to end devices, by working with OEMs to provide overall power to the system and at the board level. These solutions help reduce energy consumption and minimize operating costs associated with supplying power to customer applications.

In addition to robust end-to-end products, GE’s Critical Power business also provides customers with a full-service, comprehensive global support offering, plus a localized presence to flexibly meet their individual needs. With deep domain experience supporting mission-critical environments, GE is equipped with the latest tools and technologies to ensure consistent and reliable service delivery.

Through a partnership with GE Capital, GE’s Critical Power business is able to provide customers with a unique financial support opportunity. Customers can take advantage of customized financial lease programs and terms to support equipment upgrades and retrofits. These lease programs and terms have been specifically designed with customer’s needs in mind to ensure facilities can affordably implement the latest technologies, products and services in order to achieve more efficient and reliable power.