Pilot Purpose

SmartGridCity is a technology pilot in Boulder, Colorado that allows us to explore smart-grid tools in a real-world setting. The goal of this pilot is to help determine:

• Which energy-management and conservation tools our customers want and prefer
• Which technologies are the most effective at improving the way we deliver power
• How best to incorporate smart-grid technology into our business operations to improve efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and modernize the energy delivery system
• How to roll out the most promising smart-grid components on a wider scale
• As part of SmartGridCity, Xcel Energy has successfully installed approximately 23,000 automated smart electric meters in Boulder as part of a new era in electricity grid management.

What are the benefits to customers? Smart meters can:

• Empower you to view usage in up to 15-minute increments via the My Account portal for better daily management and control over electricity use
• Further reduce energy consumption that saves electricity and helps us reduce carbon emissions
• Help Xcel Energy more quickly detect your power outages as they happen, resulting in quicker restoration of service
• Collect energy usage data wirelessly, helping improve billing accuracy

Funding Issues of the Pilot 

According to Greentech Media, "Xcel’s fiber-connected, distribution grid-automated, renewable energy friendly upgrade to its Boulder network was launched in 2008 with great fanfare, and a cost that was supposed to mostly be borne by the long list of private partners involved. But costs ballooned, largely due to the decision to tunnel through rock to lay the fiber backbone, and private partners apparently balked at putting up so much money upfront.

"In 2010, Xcel found itself asking Colorado regulators for permission to recoup $44.5 million in rate increases, but the Colorado Public Utilities Commission only gave it $27.9 million, telling it to re-apply for the rest with more documentation to prove its value to customers. In December, Xcel filed a request for the remaining $16.6 million.

"Boulder city officials now say that Xcel hasn’t fulfilled its promise of giving city residents more control over their home power use, and thus shouldn’t be able to sock ratepayers for the cost of delivering an unfinished product. That’s a pretty dangerous precedent, to say a utility can’t get paid for the smart grid it has built unless it’s met some standard of customer engagement."

A follow-up story by Greentech Media explains that a bit issue with the pilot was one of communication. "The city and community of Boulder put the brakes on Xcel’s SmartGridCity and began an evaluation to take over the pilot as a city-owned municipal utility. Kara Mertz, Boulder’s Environmental Action Project Manager, said that city staff previously offered to help Xcel correspond with the community, but that the utility just had too much on its plate. The smart grid project was operationally successful though, she said.

"“I feel like it has a lot of really valuable components to it, it was a good test, but we didn’t interface with the customers as well as we could have,” Mertz said.

"Some residents, such as Holger Dick, a University of Colorado Boulder graduate student in computer and cognitive science, might call that an understatement. Dick believes that one of the biggest problems with SmartGridCity is the customer interface.

"“I had a smart meter, but I didn’t even know I had a smart meter,” said Dick."