Using the Session T process as a basis for their planning, GE leaders convened a Smart Grid Summit in July of 2009 to develop a coordinated cross-business plan that supported the broad solutions-based needs of this emerging technology space. Five different GE businesses were involved in the Summit: GE Energy's Transmission & Distribution and Renewables businesses, GE Enterprise Solutions' Digital Energy and Intelligent Platforms businesses, and Consumer & Industrial's Appliances business. A key goal was to align the separate technology and commercial plans under development at these different businesses to ensure the company as a whole had a cohesive strategy for pursuing opportunities that would largely cut across multiple product lines in these different P&Ls.

Normally, when GE plans for technology development in its products and services, the plans are product specific — they look at the marketplace to understand and anticipate customers' needs. With the Smart Grid, it was important to start from a much broader perspective. After all, GE provides products and services to customers spanning the entire grid from the power plant, through the grid, and all the way in to the home. It was critical to pull all of our businesses together with our technology leaders at Global Research to assess large customer needs and determine where we could help drive innovative solutions that involve several GE products, as well as products from other vendors, working in a seamless way to meet the system needs of the customer.

The Smart Grid Summit was planned for three days, with the Session T being held on the final day. On day one, GE leaders invited the media to the Research Center to provide an overview of GE activity in the Smart Grid. The second day was devoted to a technology symposium — outside speakers from industry, academia and the government described key trends and needs in the Smart Grid space. Between 30 and 40 customers were invited to the symposium as well, and the GE leadership team closed the day with a better appreciation of the challenges and opportunities. On the third day, GE staff and executives met exclusively for the Session T, to discuss coordinated technology plans across the five businesses, taking into consideration what they learned from the prior two days.

It is important to point out that the third day of the Summit was in actuality the report-out of a months-long Session T process, where technical and commercial teams from the five businesses had spent considerable effort working together to formulate coordinated strategic plans. One of the key accomplishments from the Session T was a more systematic and coordinated Smart Grid business strategy among these businesses, as well as with GE Global Research. The session helped to ensure that our technology development plans were best aligned toward maximizing the company's impact in this new space, addressing the real needs of our customers. It also helped us to identify new partnership opportunities with the U.S. government and other industry partners that were made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Coming out of the Session T, GE was well-positioned to partner with several leading U.S. utilities in formulating intelligent proposals in response to the ARRA solicitation from the DOE. GE is now involved in several projects that will redefine the electric grid as we know it.