By The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
GE Energy Financial Services said Wednesday it is boosting its stake in Tendril Networks Inc., which makes software that links utilities to smart-grid devices in homes.
The General Electric Co. unit did not quantify its investment in the Boulder, Colo.-based company. The Tendril Residential Energy Management Ecosystem (TREE) is designed to help utilities operate more efficiently and allows customers to manage their energy consumption.
GE's investment builds on its appliances partnership with Tendril. In July, GE Consumer & Industrial and Tendril said they would integrate the TREE Platform to work with GE's dryers, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances. GE appliances will communicate their power needs to the utilities in real-time. The utilities can then redistribute power as needed more efficiently.
Shares of GE rose 44 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $16.83 in afternoon trading.