BOULDER, Colo.—Xcel Energy is looking for 10,000 volunteers to install high-tech electric meters as part of the utility’s $100 million effort to turn Boulder into a “smart-grid” city.
Minneapolis-based Xcel, Colorado’s largest electric utility, has installed about 14,000 “smart” meters that provide information to the utility and to customers. It has strung more than 100 miles of fiberoptic cable over power lines for broadband transmission and hooked up a handful of homes to program and monitor energy use.
The two-way communication will allow customers to control how and when they use energy. Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Henley says it will also allow the utility to more quickly track and fix power outages.
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On the Net: Xcel Energy, Smart Grid City:
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Information from: Daily Camera,
