DENVER—Xcel Energy has chosen Boulder as its first “Smart Grid City” using technology to help customers conserve more energy while helping the utility reduce outages.
Utilities around the country have been looking to revamp traditional power grids for the digital age to improve power delivery and boost conservation as demand for power for air conditioners to computers to hybrid vehicles has grown.
Xcel said Wednesday it will work with partners to create a fully networked “smart grid” that can deliver renewable energy such as wind and solar power, along with fuels like coal, to customers with a largely automated system. It would be able to sense when part of the system is overloaded so power can be rerouted to prevent an outage.
Customers also would be able to get real-time information at their homes about their energy use, which could influence them to use energy-sucking appliances less when demand and costs are high.
“For us, besides trying to improve customer service, we’re doing it for the environmental reasons,” Xcel Energy Chairman, President and CEO Dick Kelly. “We’re looking at ways to increase energy efficiency, help increase demand-type management and limit the number of power plants we have to build.”
The first phase of the project is expected to be in place around August. In 2009, the project will start evaluating data.
If all goes well, other states could start seeing smart grid projects as early as 2010, Kelly estimated.
Xcel plans to seek government grants and contributions from technology vendors for what could be a $100 million effort. Kelly said he hopes Xcel would only fund 10 to 20 percent of that.
Kelly said customers in Boulder will immediately see better service with the project as Xcel pinpoints outages faster and manages power loads better. Later, customers will be able to choose whether they want to have a device in their homes to monitor their power use.
Xcel is working with a consortium of consultants on the project.
Xcel said Boulder’s geographic concentration, size and access to grid components were factors in choosing the city to develop a smart grid, along with the fact that Boulder is home to the University of Colorado and federal institutions including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is involved in smart grid efforts for the federal government.
Boulder Mayor Shaun McGrath said the Smart Grid City initiative represents an opportunity to help the city meet its goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“We know energy conservation and energy efficiency must be key components of our energy future,” Gov. Bill Ritter said in a written statement. “We also know the least expensive energy is energy that’s never used—the ‘nega-watt.’ New smart-grid technology will allow us to better manage, reduce, monitor and understand our energy use. It also will integrate, for the first time, solar rooftops as a recognized part of our energy infrastructure.”
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy has regulated operations serving 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers in eight states.
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