Today's Automation News Headlines from Automation.com

March 22, 2011 - GE Intelligent Platforms announced Proficy for Water InfoCenter, a solution pack that brings the power of the Proficy Software Platform to help water utilities face their many challenges to make better decisions saving time and money for better service to customers. It provides operational information contextualized with historical data in a concise manner to operators via local interfaces or mobile devices.

The Proficy for Water InfoCenter is part of GE’s “Intelligent Water” initiative, which provides insight into resources by optimizing field workforce, fixed assets and plant operations with a task relative information environment, conveyance by leveraging buffer capacity, reducing pump station energy consumption, and limiting non-revenue water with improved information visualization, treatment by mitigating increasing energy consumption during treatment with smart plant management of pumping and chemicals, and business with coordinated web based solutions providing transparency into operations that deliver actionable information to power better financial decision making.

The Proficy software platform brings insight and solutions to water operations in a way that is both actionable and profitable. Developed specifically for water/wastewater utilities, the Proficy for Water InfoCenter software platform provides connected information to better manage water resources to improve operations in resource management, conveyance and treatment of water and overall business management. It brings together award-winning Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX visualization, embedded Proficy Historian, web publishing capability with Proficy WebSpace, and more than 250 water-specific dynamos.

The GE Intelligent Platforms and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) focuses on connecting dissimilar data sources into a software-based platform that improves decision making capabilities across a water system. The solution will increase the effectiveness of a distribution network for the delivery of better quality water while using 15% less energy.

Proficy for Water InfoCenter is the first related product released following the CRADA and the latest example of how GE’s $4 billion-a-year software and solutions services businesses are helping customers improve productivity.

GE Intelligent Platforms has launched the Our Water Counts campaign showcasing global data, reports, white papers, videos, interactive maps and other resources to spread awareness about today’s global water management problems and how to fix them. Our Water Counts demonstrates that if utilities, municipalities and the general public change the way they think about water, they can impact revenue, community development and global health.

"Proficy for Water InfoCenter is the first major release following our announced relationship with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)," said Alan Hinchman, Global Water Industry Manager for GE Intelligent Platforms speaking of last year’s GE - EPA collaborative research agreement. "Water and wastewater utilities face a number of challenges globally including reducing operational costs, managing water quality, and increasing efficiency. GE believes the solution to solve these challenges is to provide operational information contextualized with historical data in a concise manner to operators via local interfaces or mobile devices. Proficy for Water InfoCenter does that by changing how utilities will manage their treatment and conveyance systems.”

“Water is fast becoming a currency worldwide, and the budget shortfalls and economic realities facing nearly every area around the country today makes this a message that is hard to ignore,” said Hinchman. ““With a total view of the water grid, the agency can see what’s happening from source water through treatment, you can gain unprecedented information and make better decisions to reduce loss, anticipate demand, and improve operations, reliability and security, saving time and money and better serving constituents.”

About GE Intelligent Platforms
GE Intelligent Platforms is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile and reliable technology providing customers a sustainable competitive advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, oil & gas, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Intelligent Platforms is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA.