Boost for Smart Grid on the Block

17th December 2010

Eight years of R&D are starting to pay off for FMC Tech, a Shannon-based company whose smart grid technology has won backing from US industrial giant GE.

The Irish companys electricity network management technology is a system of software and sensors that helps to locate outages and detect faults before they occur in power lines. It is of interest to GE as it aims to supply technologies that will be crucial to the next generation of electricity grids around the world.

FMC Tech is one of 12 companies – out of the 4,000 that entered the GE Ecomagination Challenge – that is set to receive a share of a €42 million investment fund.

There is also the potential for further investment from Foundation Capital and RockPort Capital, two venture capital firms whose partners helped to evaluate the investee companies.

FMC Tech has previously received investment from Enterprise Ireland, Enterprise Equity and the Western Development Commission.

The firm’s managing director Mike McCormack said: “This new partnership is an important endorsement, and reflects the enormous interest in the US and globally in smart power grid systems. GE’s Ecomagination Challenge provides us with the perfect partnership opportunity to take our technology to the next level.”