GE bringing 400 jobs to ATL - facility opens in July

from the WGCL news website:

GE Bringing 400 Jobs To Metro Atlanta
Facility To Open In July

POSTED: 10:24 am EDT April 22, 2010
UPDATED: 10:41 am EDT April 22, 2010

ATLANTA -- General Electric will bring 400 jobs to metro Atlanta when it moves the headquarters of one of its divisions to Cobb County later this year.

GE’s Digital Energy business will be located near the Cobb Galleria and interstate 75. The facility will include a smart grid engineering laboratory and a customer solutions showcase.

“Atlanta is an ideal location for us to continue to grow our smart grid business,” said Bob Gilligan, vice president—digital energy for GE Energy Services in an e-mail sent to CBS News Atlanta.

Funding from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will be used to hire and train the GE employees.

The Georgia Economic Development Office and the governor’s office worked with GE on the move to metro Atlanta.

“GE Energy’s decision to expand its presence in Georgia through the opening of the Smart Grid Technology Center of Excellence supports our state’s strategic growth as a global leader in the energy sector,” said Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The smart grid lab will include a collaboration between GE and Georgia Tech featuring experiments in wind and solar energy, according to GE officials.

“Research on smart grid technologies and their related systems is important at Georgia Tech, so there are limitless opportunities to collaborate with GE,” said Greg King, Strategic Partners Office at Georgia Tech. “We look forward to working with GE in this latest area of technology and innovation.”

The smart grid customer solutions showcase will feature hands-on interactive displays that can help visitors understand the challenges of delivering electricity over the power grid. Displays will include plug-in car charging and home energy management to renewable generation and automated grid communications networks.

GE will move into the new headquarters in July, and the customer showcase is scheduled to open in September.