U-Z

Xcel's Vision

Boulder, Colorado’s idyllic setting may be the perfect spot to test the intelligent grid. The city, home to roughly 100,000 well-educated people, has its own power plants and substations. Those dynamics therefore give the city’s provider, Xcel Energy, the potential to be the “utility of the future.” Xcel’s vision is to create a communications infrastructure that extends beyond the meter and into the home. The ultimate goal is to provide the utility and its customers with critical information that will facilitate energy savings. To achieve that, high-bandwidth fiber will be laid throughout the distribution network there that gives Xcel the ability to either send price signals or to automatically adjust energy devices inside homes.

“If you really want to understand usage, then you need smart grids,” says Sandy Simon, director of utility innovations for Xcel. “Our two-way communications infrastructure is the key and the integration of technologies is the sweet spot.“

The drive to install the nation’s first city-wide advanced grid is premised on the assumption that the demand for energy is expected to rise by 40 percent over the next 25 years -- all compounded by impending carbon constraints. Xcel says it is thus compelled to provide more usage information to its customers to give them the opportunity to curtail their energy consumption.

In a personal interview with Energy Central’s editors, the company explained that it made its first foray into the intelligent grid in 2003. The endeavor at that time consisted of sending electronic tickets to its field crew. But over time it has grown to include multiple partners that have joined Xcel in testing various technologies. The project is expected to cost $100 million, $20 million of which Xcel will put up -- a figure that includes people, software and equipment.

Details Here

first published week of:   03/30/2009

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