ComEd, in partnership with Silver Spring Networks and Accenture, hosted its SmartGridExchange Forum, bringing together leading technology and innovation companies, including Oracle, NestLabs, Home Depot, GE Energy, and the Energy Foundry, with other customer and stakeholder organizations, including the City of Chicago, Citizens Utility Board and Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, to discuss how to leverage the smart grid to deliver increased value to consumers.

Sweden's Electrolux AB paid $3.3 billion in cash for General Electric's appliances business. GE's century-old household appliance business could help the Swedish company expand beyond its core European market, where growth has trailed that in North America. The deal will be financed by a bridge facility, and the company plans a rights issue to raise about 25 percent of the price after the deal's expected closing next year.

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory  selected a team led by Burr Energy LLC (dba Microgrid Institute) to design, simulate, and test microgrid control systems for two Maryland suburbs served by utility Pepco Holdings. DOE/NETL is expected to provide approximately $1.2 million in funding assistance for the Olney Town Center Microgrid Project during a two-year period beginning in late 2014.

Duke Energy committed $500 million to a major expansion of solar power in North Carolina. The company will acquire and construct three solar facilities - totaling 128 MW of capacity - including the largest solar PV facility east of the Mississippi River. Duke Energy also signed PPAs with five new solar projects in the state, representing 150 MW of capacity. Together, the eight projects will have a capacity of 278 MW.

Dominion acquired two solar energy projects totaling 42 MW from EDF Renewable Energy. The acquisitions of the California projects are expected to close in 2015. The Cottonwood project, with solar sites located in Kings, Kern and Marin Counties, has secured a 25-year PPA, interconnection agreements and EPC contracts. The company anticipates that the 24-MW solar energy facility will come online in the first half of 2015. The Catalina Solar 2 project, located in Kern County, has secured a 20-year PPA, an interconnection agreement and an EPC contract.

Siemens received an order for the turnkey delivery of the grid connection for the Dudgeon offshore wind farm. The customers are the Norwegian utilities Statoil and Statkraft, which are jointly implementing the wind farm off the coast of the U.K. Siemens will supply the entire power transmission system, including the two transformer substations - one onshore and one offshore - for the 402-MW project. Siemens had previously received an order in August to deliver 67 wind turbines in the new 6-MW class as well as to maintain the wind farm.

Google agreed to provide $145 million in equity financing for the Regulus, SunEdison's largest developed and constructed project in North America. Located in Kern County, Calif., the Regulus plant will begin operation later this year, and will supply power to Southern California Edison through a 20-year PPA. SunEdison developed, designed, executed the structured financing and is constructing the Regulus project, which was contributed to TerraForm Power.

PPL Montana has agreed to sell its hydroelectric facilities to NorthWestern Energy. Montana Public Service Commission voted to prepare an order approving NorthWestern Energy's request to purchase the facilities. The agreement includes PPL Montana's 11 hydroelectric power plants, which have a combined generating capacity of more than 630 MW, as well as the company's Hebgen Lake reservoir. PPL Montana and NorthWestern have secured required approvals from FERC, as well as the necessary clearance from the antitrust enforcement agencies.