Colorado smart grid toolkit

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Colorado smart grid projects

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Black Hills/Colorado Electric Utility AMI / MDM System

Black Hills/Colorado Electric Utility Company (BHCOE) is one of three Black Hills Corporation subsidiaries deploying advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)—the other two are Black Hills Power (South Dakota/Wyoming) and Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power (Wyoming). BHCOE’s project includes the deployment of smart meters, communication infrastructure, and a meter data management system (MDMS). The project provides improved outage restoration from the integration of an outage management system with the AMI. Two-way communication allows for off-cycle reads, remote connect/disconnect of customer loads, tamper detection, and potential future implementation of time-based rate programs. BHCOE is also deploying approximately 200 direct load control devices as part of a pilot program to understand customer acceptance and load impacts. Get details >>

City of Fort Collins smart grid project

The City of Fort Collins’ Front Range Smart Grid Development Project involves the municipal utilities for the cities of Fort Collins and Fountain, Colorado. The project includes city-wide deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); expansion of distribution automation capabilities, which include circuit switches, remote fault indicators, capacitor controls, and outage management system; demand response products; time-based rate programs including time-of-use and critical peak pricing; customer education; and Web portal access. These activities allow: (1) participants to view their energy use through in-home displays, a Web portal, or both; and (2) the City of Fort Collins and the City of Fountain to manage, measure, and verify targeted demand reductions during peak periods. The new AMI and distribution automation technologies help improve service quality and reliability by enabling outage management, distribution circuit monitoring, and automated circuit switching. Get details >>

ABB Denver smart grid demonstration

ABB Inc. will research, develop, and demonstrate a real-time monitoring, control, and health management system to improve grid reliability and efficiency. It will utilize digital data from sensors and substation Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) to continuously monitor system performance.  Using real-time information, utility control center operators will be able to address outages, power quality issues, and other anomalies to reduce the frequency and duration of outages. A demonstration will be conducted on Xcel Energy's distribution system in Denver. Get details >>

Xcel Energy SmartGridCity project

SmartGridCity, in Boulder, Colo., is a fully integrated smart grid community with what is possibly the densest concentration of emerging smart grid technologies to date. It is a comprehensive system that includes a digital, high-speed broadband communication system; upgraded substations, feeders and transformers; smart meters; and web-based tools. Customers that live in this area are now among the first in the world to enjoy a system using smart grid technology to deliver its electricity. Get details >>

Energy news and trends in Colorado

Boulder to Xcel: Thanks for the smart grid, now get lost

By the slimmest of margins, Boulder, Colorado voters on Tuesday told city officials (and Xcel Energy) that they support a municipal electricity of their own. But moving ahead with the project is subject to a number of conditions and issues that could take years to sort out – so a break up with Xcel is anything but final. Read more from Smart Grid News >>

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The status quo vs a cleaner energy future

If things continue as they are now, a new report concludes, by 2050 the Western states will be using a lot more coal-fired power and natural gas than they would if companies invested the same amount of money in renewables, energy conservation and a more flexible grid. Read more from OPB News >>

Siemens and eMeter integrate MDM software to assist Black Hills Corp. with AARA-funded smart grid project

As part of its continued development of intelligent Smart Grid initiatives, Black Hills Corp., whose utility subsidiaries provide electric and natural gas service to approximately 762,000 customers in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, has chosen Siemens Energy, Inc. to integrate the eMeter EnergyIP® meter data management system (MDMS) into its information technology systems. Read more at MarketWatch >>

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Colorado ranch owner plans lawsuit after PUC rules against his appeal

Trinchera Ranch owner Louis Bacon will file suit to stop a controversial transmission line after state regulators Friday largely upheld their previous approval of the project. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission denied all of the substantive portions of Bacon's appeal to block the 136-mile power line that would cross a portion of his southern Colorado ranch. Read more from The Denver Post >>

Tri-State discusses updates to its resource plan

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. expects it will have to develop less renewable energy than expected on its own over the next several years because its members are developing their own projects, managers said Monday. The electric cooperative, based in Westminster, Colo., provides power to 44 members who serve about 1.5 million people in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska. Read more from Bloomberg Businessweek >>

U.N. Secretary-General: Renewables Can End Energy Poverty

United Nation's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made renewable energy and its ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity a central theme during his visit to Colorado on Wednesday. With the Rockies as his backdrop, Ban toured the National Renewable Energy Laborary in Golden, where he inspected the flexible thin-film modules produced by Colorado-based Ascent Solar. The facility, he said, represents innovative approaches that for relatively little cost can connect remote areas to the global network of information and ideas. Read more at RenewableEnergyWorld.com >>

NextStep Electric close to commercializing photovoltaic wrap

A small solar start-up based in Boulder, Colo., is beginning to gain some traction nationally with utility companies interested in its brilliantly simple plan to clad electric poles in thin-film solar panels. Read more at CleanEnergyAuthority.com >>

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