This Week in Grid: Changing Execs, Cisco Steps Up and GE Gets Metered

When they're not hustling for deals, smart grid executives have spent the week playing musical chairs.

Early this week we wrote that Silver Spring Networks nabbed a yet unnamed high-level executive from Cisco Systems. A formal announcement from the company will be released soon. Silver Spring has been quickly on the rise the past few years, having raised a few rounds of VC financing and launched a massive deal with utility PG&E to install meters in California (see Green Light post).

Greenbox, the maker of home energy management software, also added a new exec, installing Ivo Steklac, a 20-year veteran of such metering giants as Elster and Schlumberger, as its new CEO (see Trend Watch: Greenbox Lands Energy Industry Insider as CEO).

Cisco has only recently announced its smart grid plans with a one-million smart meter project with Florida Power and Light, but it hasn't stopped there. This week the IT networking giant announced that it been enlisted by the Charlotte, N.C. utility Duke Energy on a three-year project to build out an "end-to-end, smart grid communications architecture" (see Duke Enlists Cisco in Smart Grid Efforts).

Silver Spring has partnered with General Electric on a pilot smart meter project for the Chicago utility Commonwealth Edison (see GE, Silver Spring Land ComEd Smart Meter Pilot), while GE has announced its plans with Whirlpool to install communications modules in their appliances so utilities can turn down water heaters, dryers and such during peak power demand times (see The Smart Appliance: Waiting for the Market to Choose Communication Standards).

Lastly, Tendril's reeled in $30 million in a third round of funding, bringing the home energy management specialist's total funding to $50 million (see Tendril Lands $30M as Growth Consolidation Loom in Smart Grid).

Here are some other stories you might have missed:

• Lu's Google PowerMeter Update: Open APIs, More Partners Soon

• Kleiner Sees Home Energy Security as Entry Into Home Energy Management

• AlertMe Raises £8M for Home Energy Management