(OGC®) announced that GE Energy has upgraded its OGC membership from Technical Member to the Principal Member level

GE plans to help drive the development of international standards for geospatial technologies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mobile workforce applications. The Consortium’s Principal Members can exercise authority over the development, release and adoption of OGC standards through their voting rights in the OGC Planning Committee. They are also an integral player in the forward thinking strategy of the consortium and provide valuable industry expertise to support this role.

As an industry leader GE Energy has developed GIS, mobile workforce applications and communications management software to play a key role in constructing, managing and maintaining the critical infrastructure of the worlds' leading utilities.

"GE Energy’s move to Principal Membership in the OGC reflects the company's recognition of the value of open standards in the markets they serve and for the customers they serve," said Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC. "We look forward to GE Energy's increased leadership in OGC programs to further advance the application and integration of geospatial information and sensor feeds that are so critical in the management of energy resources."

GE Energy has been involved with the Technical Committee of the OGC since it acquired the Smallworld TM  business in September 2000. Since then GE Energy has ensured its GIS software is certified as compliant with OGC standards.

"GE has been a member of the OGC since 1995," said John McDonald, Technical Strategy & Policy Development Director for Digital Energy. "GE is proud to serve as a Principal Member, and will work with the OGC to increase the value of geospatial technology for multiple industries by encouraging standards and certified compliance."

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, health care solutions and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.ge.com.

GE serves the energy sector by developing and deploying technology that helps make efficient use of natural resources. With nearly 85,000 global employees and 2009 revenues of $40 billion, GE Energy http://www.ge.com/energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies. The businesses that comprise GE Energy—GE Power & Water, GE Energy Services and GE Oil & Gas—work together to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels.

About the OGC

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 410 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGCwebsite at   http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.