GE Delivers Energy Efficient Solutions to Power-Hungry IT Industry

New ecomagination product offers 94% efficiency in normal data center operations

Lombard, IL .– GE Digital Energy, a business of GE Enterprise Solutions (NYSE: GE), today announced that its 750kVA SG Series Digital Energy UPS system has been certified as an ecomagination product after completing GE’s rigorous ecomagination Product Review (EPR) process. At a typical 50 percent load, GE’s 750kVA UPS system achieves efficiency of more than 94 percent, delivering uninterruptible power to the booming global data center industry at higher efficiency than competitors’ systems.

“As the IT industry’s demand for data storage grows significantly each year, so does the amount of energy needed to run servers and data centers,” said Larry Sollecito, President and CEO, GE Digital Energy. “GE’s investment in more energy efficient UPS technology helps data centers achieve a high level of energy efficiency without sacrificing high power capacity or reliability. A number of large data centers have already placed orders for the highly efficient 750kVA UPS.”

According to the Department of Energy, data centers in the U.S. consume more than 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy each year, a number that’s growing about 12 percent annually as the demand for data storage continues to surge. The energy use of the nation’s servers and data centers in 2006 was more than double the electricity that was consumed for this purpose in 2000 – and continues to grow in the U.S. and globally.

GE’s 750kVA UPS system helps customers reduce their energy consumption and costs. Ten GE 750kVA UPS systems operating in a typical data center at 50 percent load use approximately 60kW to 100kW less power and require on average 30kW to 50kW less power for cooling than competitors’ systems. This lowers the total power required to operate and cool a data center by 90kW to 150kW on average, reducing annual electric energy consumption by an amount equivalent to that of 70 to 120 U.S. households. Using ten GE 750kVA UPS systems, rather than competitors’ systems, in a typical data center at 50 percent load can avoid the annual emission of 460 to 780 metric tons of CO2 on the U.S. grid, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 90 to 150 cars on U.S. roads.

Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to imagine and build innovative technologies that help customers address their environmental and financial needs, such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy. The 750kVA UPS was certified as an ecomagination product on the basis of both the operating benefits and environmental benefits it offers to energy-conscious managers of large data centers. Using ten GE 750kVA UPS systems in a typical data center at 50 percent load can reduce operating and cooling electric energy costs by $76,000 to $130,000 per year versus competitors’ systems, assuming an electric energy price of $0.10/kWh.

“Certifying the 750kVA UPS as an ecomagination product underscores our commitment to delivering solutions that meet the digital world’s ever-increasing demand for more energy efficient and reliable power supplies,” said Sollecito.

GE ecomagination Certification
The ecomagination Product Review (EPR) process provides a third-party verification of claims, quantifying operating and environmental performance benefits that accrue to GE’s customers by using ecomagination products relative to baselines such as competitors’ best products, the installed base of products and regulatory standards. These ecomagination claims can be found in GE’s printed materials and advertisements, and on the web at www.ge.com/ecomagination. Ecomagination products are re-certified regularly to help ensure that claims remain accurate.