Tim Taylor, president and chief executive officer of, Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company, said: “As measurable results continue to be achieved in the coming months, we look forward to continued improvements in operating efficiencies, as well as new and improved services for the citizens of Boulder, Colorado.”
This launch combines all the automated functions of SmartGridCity, including switching power through fully-automated substations; re-routing power around bottlenecked lines; detecting power outages and proactively identifying outage risks. The deployment integrated around 20 applications, 95 new interfaces and approximately 300 test cases.
The SmartGridCity project also included automating three of four distribution substations, four computer-monitored power feeders, and another 23 feeders that are watched for voltage irregularities. Approximately 200 miles of fiber optic cable, 4,600 residential and small business transformers and around 16,000 smart meters are currently connected to the smart grid system.
The company has recently completed the SmartGridCity construction phase on the network “backbone.” The Xcel Energy’s Smart Grid Consortium includes Accenture, CURRENT Group, GridPoint, OSIsoft, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, SmartSynch and Ventyx.
The latest software provides smart grid theories about reducing power outages on the company’s distribution system and adding real-time monitoring capabilities of the electric grid status. The company, through the smart grid technology, can predict equipment failure and proactively make necessary repairs before an outage occurs.
Jay Herrmann, regional vice president of Xcel Energy, said: “We can now read customer meters remotely, identify and reduce outages and false power outage calls more quickly. By cutting the number of times we send crews out to those calls, we can make our crews more productive. Combining those efficiencies while reducing outages will allow us to capture cost-savings more appropriately and benefit our customers.”
