Boulder Becomes 'Smart Grid City'
The Grid Gets a Brain
By Richard Martin, 5-09-08
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If all goes as planned Boulder will become the world’s first “fully integrated Smart Grid City,” says regional utility Xcel Energy. Envisioned as the first true innovation in electricity distribution in close to a century, the Smart Grid movement is essentially developing ways to bring digital Internet-based technology to power lines, giving utilities and business and residential customers greater control and efficiency in the flow of electricity.
Residential customers in Boulder, for example, will be able to use the high-speed communication technologies integrated with the advanced Xcel system to monitor and regulate their energy use, get real-time data on energy prices, and even shift between various sources of electric power including natural gas, coal, and renewable sources such as wind power.
Ultimately, once the Smart Grid takes over a significant chunk of the existing power distribution infrastructure, utilities and governments will be able to use the power of the Web to better manipulate how electricity is generated and delivered.
“In Boulder, we’ll collaborate with others to integrate all aspects of our smart grid vision and evaluate the benefits,” said Xcel Energy chairman and CEO Dick Kelly. “The work we’re doing will benefit not only Boulder, but also customers throughout our eight-state service territory.”
Boulder was selected as the first Smart Grid City because of its compact size, the availability of appropriate infrastructure, and the presence of big research institutions like CU and the National Institue of Standards and Technology. The total cost of the Boulder, to be shared by Xcel along with the state and the federal government, could reach $100 million.
In other energy news:
-- Democrats in the U.S. Senate introduced legislation this week designed to a) punish Big Oil for the windfall profits it’s enjoying, and b) bring relief to consumers suffering from gas prices creeping inexorably (and in a few cases topping) $4 a gallon. The Democratic energy package would establish a temporary special tax on oil company profits, a reduction of $17 billion in oil-industry tax breaks, and suspend oil deliveries into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the time being. This of course is largely posturing: President Bush is expected to veto any Democratic energy legislation that reaches his desk.
-- Eyeing the fine print on multi-page electricity bills, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is examining the expanding and confusing fees and surcharges that Xcel and other utilities pad customer bills with. “This is the Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s first major inquiry into Xcel and other utility profits and rate structures in recent years,” the Rocky Mountain News reports, “even as the state undergoes a seismic shift in the way it conserves energy and generates more electricity using wind and solar sources.”
-- As oil prices hit yet another peak of $126 a barrel, oil and gas executives think a downturn is in sight. “Fifty-five percent of 372 petroleum industry executives surveyed by KPMG LLP said they think the price of a barrel of crude will drop below $100 by the end of the year,” reports the AP. The survey is being released today. Wall Street doesn’t buy it: premier investment firm Goldman Sachs said earlier this week the price of a barrel of crude could reach $150 to $200 within two years.
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