HD Supply Utilities Offers New GE® Hybrid Water Heater with Energy Efficiency and Demand Response Capability

HD Supply Utilities, North America’s largest electric utilities distributor, today announced it has entered into an agreement with GE Consumer & Industrial of Louisville, Ky. to supply the new GE Hybrid Water Heater to electric utilities for their residential customers.

The new smart appliance is Energy Star qualified and can reduce energy consumption up to 62%1, helping utilities to achieve their energy conservation program goals. Ideally suited for utilities’ smart grid initiatives, the GE Hybrid Water Heater is demand response capable, with four pre-programmed settings, and adaptable to multiple communication protocols.

According to Energy Star, a joint federal government program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, residential water heaters are the highest energy users in households behind air heating and cooling systems. By combining energy-saving heat pump technology with traditional electric elements, the GE Hybrid Water Heater pulls heat from surrounding air and transfers it to the water in the tank. It provides the same amount of hot water consumers are accustomed to, but requires less than half of the energy to produce it — a savings of about 3,025 kWh per year.1 Through its demand response capabilities, this new water heater can achieve load shed and/or load avoidance of up to 3,950 watts.

Additionally, the smart appliance qualifies for Energy Star rebate programs that include heat pump water heaters at the state and federal levels, allowing consumers to benefit from cost savings. In July, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the availability of nearly $300 million in funding for state-run Energy Star rebate programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus plan.

The GE Hybrid Water Heater will become an integral component of HD Supply Utilities’ fully integrated technology solutions for the smart grid — from smart meters and home area network devices to the AMI network and demand response, demand side management and meter data management software platforms at the utility data and operations center. HD Supply Utilities delivers these customized, turnkey solutions to investor-owned, municipal and electric cooperative utilities throughout North America.

“We selected HD Supply Utilities as a partner because of their established reputation as a leading supplier to electric utilities,” explained Keith Burkhardt, Commercial Leader, Hybrid Water Heater, GE Consumer & Industrial. “Their extensive distribution network, comprehensive capabilities and ability to serve all types and sizes of electric utilities will be key to a successful launch of the first demand response enabled heat pump water heater.”

“GE is leading the way in energy management enabled appliances with the first Energy Star listed heat pump electric water heater with demand response capabilities. Achieving a 2.35 EF and consuming up to 62% less energy than a standard electric water heater is significant to both the consumer and utility,” said Geff Smith, Vice President, and Automation. “We are very excited to offer it to utilities to accelerate demand response and energy efficiency.”

About HD Supply Utilities

As North America’s largest electric utilities distributor, HD Supply Utilities (www.hdsupply.com/utilities) is a business of HD Supply (www.hdsupply.com), a leading wholesale distribution company, providing a broad range of products and services to professional customers in the infrastructure & energy, maintenance, repair & improvement and specialty construction markets. With a diverse portfolio of market-leading businesses, HD Supply is one of the largest diversified wholesale distributors in North America, with approximately 900 locations.

About GE Consumer & Industrial

GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliances, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and ecomaginationSM, a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE), imagination at work, sells products under the Monogram®, Profile™, GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™, Reveal® and Energy Smart® consumer brands, and Entellisys®, Tetra®, Vio™ and Immersion® commercial brands. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.

1 Based on DOE test procedure and comparison of a 50-gallon standard electric tank water heater using 4,881 kWh per year vs. the GE hybrid water heater using 1,856 kWh per year.

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