U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member: Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Ethics and Aging Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

Wednesday , March 12, 2008

CONTACT:Stephanie Valencia – 202-494-8790
Cody Wertz – 303-350-0032

Sen. Salazar Applauds Xcel Decision to Make Boulder Home for Smart Grid

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, United States Ken Salazar issued the following statement after Xcel Energy announced that it will make Boulder the home of the first full-scale “smart grid city.” With this move Boulder will become an important test bed for emerging smart grid technologies. The decision will bring up to $100 million in investment from a consortium of five companies that will install smart gird components throughout the city’s electric infrastructure.

Boulder’s impressive array of federal and academic research institutions, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, offers Xcel and its partners the opportunity to work side-by-side with world-class researchers to develop standards for large-scale deployment of smart grid technologies.

“The smart grid will revolutionize not only our Nation’s electric infrastructure but also consumers’ energy awareness. Xcel’s selection of Boulder as the site for this smart grid demonstration project shows how Colorado continues to be the frontier for new clean energy technologies, as we continue to lead our nation in a new energy revolution. I applaud Xcel and the private partnership they have brought together. They continue to be a leader in energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy technologies.”

Smart grid is the rubric attached to a suite of technologies that enable real-time electricity usage and supply information to be carried over electric power lines. The structure of the current electric grid has changed very little since its inception, and does not provide operators with house-to-house or even neighborhood-to-neighborhood data on energy usage. The information provided through smart grid technologies will enable the optimization of the grid’s reliability and efficiency. Smart grid is more than just “smart electric meters”; smart grid encompasses intelligent management of the generation, transmission, distribution, and use of electric power – the entire electricity value chain.

The smart grid will make the electric grid more efficient and reliable and will provide an important means for consumers to become aware of the real-time costs of electricity, enabling them to understand and manage their own energy usage and change consumption habits.

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