News, Trends & Analysis
SmartGridCity
Sticker Shock: EPRI Says Smart Grid Will Cost $165 Billion Over 20 Years
Feb 15th
Feb 15, 2010
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) says the Smart Grid will cost $165 billion over the next 20 years. But, you might ask, what all does that estimate include? And is the price tag something to get that excited about when the same organization said last year that business losses and damages from power interruptions and fluctuations cost the economy about $100 billion?
The coming Smart Grid will be able to do a lot of things: provide reliable, green, secure electricity and a stable energy future for the country. It’s also expected to cost a lot of dollars: about More >
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Loading ...What Next for SmartGridCity? Xcel Wants to Test Dynamic Pricing
Feb 12th
Feb 9, 2010
Here’s one pilot all utilities should be watching. Most pundits predict the U.S. will gradually move to dynamic pricing for electricity. But there are precious few models and examples (and many of those are bad examples, as with Puget Sound Energy’s infamous debacle). Now Smart Grid pioneer Xcel has filed to experiment with three different flavors of dynamic pricing in Boulder.
Xcel Energy has asked the Colorado PUC for permission to initiate a pilot pricing program for Boulder’s SmartGridCity to test customer acceptance of three different electricity pricing options. If approved by the PUC, the pilot would be launched in More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...$$$ Boulder SmartGridCity Cost Overruns: How Bad is it Really?
Feb 8th
Feb 8, 2010
From the When Will We Learn file: Xcel is getting consumer pushback for the costs of SmartGridCity, which (according to this report) have been ballooning and should have been better disclosed up front. We believe the pushback will continue until utilities get better at marketing the Smart Grid and its benefits.
Whopping discrepancies in projected and actual costs for Xcel Energy’s Boulder, Colorado, Smart Grid project have caught the state PUC’s attention. Now the regulators want to do what they do: Regulate it.
The Boulder Smart Grid, while unfinished, already has many of the bells and whistles one expects from More >
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