GE's Current forges alliance with IoT software specialist Tridium (UPDATED)
The pact with the Honeywell company marks Current’s second strategic move in a month, and will help GE collect and analyze data from building automation and lighting systems, leveraging IoT technology.
The new energy and lighting group Current, powered by GE said it has entered an alliance with a division of Honeywell International to help it collect and analyze data from commercial and industrial buildings as part of its Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives.
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Current will use the Tridium software to integrate building systems and devices for IoT applications. Source: Current, powered by GE.
The partnership between GE’s Current and Honeywell’s Tridium Inc. allows Current to use Tridium’s Niagara Framework software, which GE said integrates building automation systems and devices “regardless of manufacturer, communication standard, or software.”
Richmond, VA-based Tridium claims to have over half a million Niagara Framework installations globally. GE will use its own Predix cloud software to analyze information gathered via Niagara Framework.
The agreement also gives Tridium customers access to Current energy management services, said Current CEO Maryrose Sylvester.
GE formed Current last October, folding lighting and other operations into it. Current is a services group that gathers information via sensors — which can be embedded in luminaires — and other means to note patterns in a building or operation’s energy use. It uses that information to improve energy performance and to monitor and maintain energy devices ranging from light bulbs to solar panels to batteries and electric car charging stations.
In the Current business model, LED hardware is as much a node in an information network as it is a light source.
Ceiling lights can be incorporated into an IoT strategy to help collect data via sensors as part of a networked industrial building.Source: Current, powered by GE.
Current is a key cog in the “industrial Internet” strategy of GE CEO Jeff Immelt, in which products across the GE stable including jet engines, locomotives, and gas turbines include sensors that monitor performance and use related data to improve operations and sell services.
The agreement with Honeywell’s Tridium marks Current’s second recent corporate maneuver aimed at expanding its reach into the fledgling IoT, in which anything that can be digitized will be, for the purposes of improving operations and gathering data.
Last month, Current acquired Los Altos, CA-based Daintree Networks, which makes wireless control systems for building automation. Current said the acquisition will extend Current’s building automation and energy-as-a-service offerings to small and medium sized companies.
MARK HALPERis a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).
