DC People’s Counsel Elizabeth A. Noël lead a team of her staff on a tour of the “Smart Grid City” Experience without ever leaving downtown Washington, thanks to the efforts of a consortium of energy and technology companies including Xcel Energy, Accenture, Current Group, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Ventyx, GridPoint, and OSI Soft. “In the District, we already have a Smart Meter Pilot Program in place, but the opportunity to learn from a far more extensive application of monitoring tools could save the District substantial time and potentially tens of millions of ratepayer dollars” said People’s Counsel Noël.

In this case, Smart Grid City is neatly packaged into the rear of a traveling tractor trailer outfitted with educational tools and displays of real world applications of the “smart” electrical and computer technology being tested by Xcel, its partners, and the 47,000 customers in the Boulder, Colorado area.

“What the Boulder project is doing goes well beyond “PEPCO’s Blueprint” for automated metering proposed for the District. Instead, the Xcel Boulder project redefines the “smart grid” to involve every aspect of moving electricity from the point at which it is generated to how it is delivered to and used by the consumer” said Ms. Noël.

Xcel has applied a wide variety of computer and technology based equipment to monitor the electric delivery system and provide consumers with data on their energy consumption. Consumers have a range of options to control their energy use by computer with the aid of “intelligent” electric sockets and plugs. Xcel claims the “network” developed with its partners has the ability to maximize alternative energy resources such as solar, wind, and even energy efficiency because it offers extensive real time information on customer’s electrical needs allowing the utility to be selective about which generation sources it chooses.

Of particular interest to regulators, elected officials and advocates poised to shape the District of Columbia’s energy future with “smart meters” is that Xcel officials learned that they did not need to replace all customer meters. Roughly half of the consumers in Boulder have had their meters replaced with smart meters because the utility found the older equipment met their needs and some of the special features coveted by the utility such as service disconnection and restoration can easily be handled by other components on the network.