GE Current Opens Predix Platform, Provides LED Lighting to JP Morgan Chase Locations

In a deal GE characterized as the largest single-order LED installation in the world, JP Morgan Chase agreed to have Current by GE install new indoor and outdoor lighting across the 5,000-odd locations of its U.S. bank network.

The project will replace about 1.4 million lights in 25 million square feet of space with GE’s LED systems over two years and reduce lighting energy costs at the banks by 50% at the branches.

Current, a new business unit launched by GE last fall, combines its LED lighting, solar, energy storage and electric vehicle businesses into a combined offering focused on energy efficiency and energy management products and services based on its Predix industrial software platform.

“LED commercial usage is anticipated to grow from 28% today to 95% by 2025, unlocking tremendous value for our customers to reduce energy cost and complexity in commercial enterprises,” said Maryrose Sylvester, president and CEO of Current. “Chase understands this shift and is a frontrunner in leading the transformative change in distributed energy by leveraging LEDs to optimize energy efficiency.”

Projects such as this one give the new business, led by former GE Lighting CEO Sylvester, a chance to demonstrate its capabilities beyond lighting by integrating intelligence supported by the lighting system.

“We are always looking for better ways to manage our branches in an efficient and sustainable manner,” said Barry Sommers, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, in a GE release. “This helps us deliver on that goal by reducing the energy we use in the communities we serve.”

GE spent $1 billion over the last few years to develop Predix, a cloud-based software platform that has allowed GE to securely collect data from jet engines, gas turbines and MRI scanners, analyze it and then use the results to make them run better. Last fall GE gave access to Predix to a select group of partners and customers, and this week the company took the next step at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona and opened Predix to everyone.

GE also announced in Barcelona a new “digital alliance” with companies like Intel, Capgemini and Infosys, who see Predix as a revenue stream and a valid business opportunity.

“There is a huge amount of interest in the Industrial Internet and in the solutions we are offering,” Harel Kodesh, chief technology officer of GE Digital and one of the architects of Predix. “People realize that GE is not just another random company that decided to be a software company. We bring something that goes beyond software.”