Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog

Xcel Energy says that it has completed its infrastructure deployment for its project in Boulder, CO. To date, the it involves approximately 200 miles of new fiber optic cable, 4,600 residential and small business transformers, and 16,000 smart meters, 20 software applications, and 95 application interfaces. Software integration and testing continues. The Boulder implementation is the most comprehensive city-wide smart grid project in the U.S. Current functionality includes:

• switching power through fully automated substations
• re-routing power around bottlenecked lines
• detecting power outages
• proactively identifying outage risks
• automating three of four distribution substations
• automating four computer monitored power feeders
• monitoring 23 feeders for voltage irregularities

A grid monitoring system, installed by CURRENT Group has helped avert four power outages by alerting Xcel operators to transformers that were ready to fail. Not a bad start to Xcel's "grid optimization" efforts.

I live in Boulder and have applied to be a beta tester for Xcel's next phase of development which will include demand response programs, in-home displays, and other energy-saving devices. We'll see what happens. --JCB