Boulder on track to become first smart grid city

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-co-smartgridcity,0,4834935.story

Boulder on track to become first smart grid city

By JUDITH KOHLER | Associated Press Writer
6:57 AM CST, February 7, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. - President Barack Obama's vision of a "smart" electrical grid that is key to America's energy future is becoming reality in Boulder, which aims to become the world's first smart grid city this year.

Xcel Energy, the nation's No. 1 retail provider of wind power, leads the $100 million effort in this university city of 100,000 in the Rockies foothills. By 2010, homeowners will monitor how much power they're consuming. Plug-in electric vehicles will feed power into the grid. Energy-saving appliances and thermostats will feed information to the network. And all of it will enable Xcel to distribute electricity when and where it's needed, saving millions of dollars and the need to build more power plants.

Other benefits: Lower carbon emissions, coordinating energy use with the availability of power sources such as wind and solar, and savings by avoiding power disruptions.

"This really is the only truly smart-grid city in the country," said Roy Palmer, Xcel's project executive for the program. "All the components have never been brought together at one time."

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