OREANDA-NEWS. Solidifying itself as best in class in the electrical distribution industry, GE’s Digital Energy Solutions as a Service business (NYSE: GE) received the award of Best Smart Grid Solution at the Municipal Smart Grid Summit (MSGS) for its innovative Grid IQ(TM) Connect services offering. The summit took place last month at PGA National in West Palm Beach, Fla.

At MSGS, more than 40 of the cutting-edge smart grid technology and consulting industry companies presented their smart grid products and solutions to 100 or more municipal utility executives for review and consideration. After three days of boardroom presentations, GE’s Grid IQ Connect was chosen by the collaboration as the best smart grid solution.

“It is both an honor and a great achievement to be recognized by our customers as the provider of the best smart grid solution for municipal utilities for the second time in three years,” said Todd Jackson, product line leader—software solutions for GE’s Digital Energy business. “This award signifies GE’s commitment to the municipal utility segment and further establishes the company as a technological leader within the industry.”

Grid IQ Connect is a services-based program offered by GE’s Solution as a Service business. It offers customers incredible value from accelerated benefits due to the speed at which the system is deployed, technology risk mitigation and by providing smaller utilities access to technology otherwise not affordable in traditional project delivery models. The offering consists of five primary services to enhance the effectiveness of advanced meter infrastructure systems and other aspects of grid operations. These services include meter data services, pre-payment services, outage detection and notification services, asset monitoring services and consumer portal services.