By Ann Rascalli

Some Colorado Locations Get Money - But Not Who You Think

Colorado will receive approximately $24.2 million in federal economic stimulus funding for “Smart Grid” updates to the state’s power grid and customer meters. Curiously, none of the money is slated for Xcel Energy Inc.’s widely publicized “Smart Grid City” project in Boulder said to be costing $100 million.

President Obama announced the $3.4 billion in ARRA grants to upgrade the nation’s electricty system from power plants to consumers during his speech at a Florida solar installation. According to the  U.S. Department of Energy, the power industry will match that figure, which means the total investment will top $8 billion.

The City of Fort Collins Utilities will receive $18,101,263 from the stimulus package, covering half the cost of a $36,202,527 project. Xcel Energy’s Boulder project, however, wasn’t among this week’s winners and it is unlikely to receive any money from the stimulus package, the state’s largest utility said.

“Our application was in the second round. We are disappointed to find out that the second round of funding was canceled,” Xcel spokesman Tom Henley told the Denver Business Jouurnal via email.

Xcel’s Boulder project includes streamlining and upgrading the city’s network of electricity lines and substations, as well as upgrading customer meters to enable residents and businesses to better track and control their power use.

Another recipient of “smart grid” funding is Black Hills/Colorado Electric Utility Company. The Pueblo utility is getting $6,142,854 to cover half the cost of a project to install 42,000 new smart meters and a communications infrastructure for improved meter reading. In addition, the DOE says the funds will also support a pilot project for changing the price of electricity based on various factors. Two other Colorado companies, Foro Energy Inc. and ITN Energy Systems Inc. — a consortium of MAG Industrial Automation systems, EPRI and the Colorado School of Mines in Golden — also received stimulus money from the DOE on Tuesday.

Littleton-based Foro Energy Inc., has developed a new technology to improve drilling techniques used to access geothermal energy in hard rock deep underground. ITN Energy Systems Inc., is receiving $4.98 million for research on solid-state electrochromic film which could ultimately help reduce the cost of electrically controlled “smart” windows. All told, Smart Grid Investment Grant awards went to 100 private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners, according to the DOE.

Tendril Networks Teaming With Fat Spaniel Technologies on Energy Management Solution

At Solar Power International 2009 this week, Boulder’s Tendril Networks announced that it is teaming up with Fat Spaniel Technologies to create a complete utility-facing solution for residential energy management incorporating data and analytics from renewable energy sources. Fat Spaniel’s Insight Platform(TM), which enables sophisticated performance management of renewable energy portfolios, will be integrated with the Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) Platform.

Tendril says that its enterprise-class TREE Platform, with engaging in-home devices and a suite of utility applications, provides a secure, end-to-end, easy-to-deploy, open, standards-based energy management system that empowers consumers to take control of their energy consumption.  Because of its  scalability, reliability and extensibility, the TREE Platform provides utilities with demand response, energy efficiency and variable pricing, along with a platform for future applications such as distributed generation management and vehicle-to-grid. The TREE Platform is currently being field tested in utility trials and pilots across the country.”In today’s clean energy economy, effectively integrating renewable energy into residential load management is crucial in bringing us to the next level of the smart grid,” said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril. “Combined with our deep experience with home area networking and utility back-end services, this partnership with Fat Spaniel will enable us to offer an optimal solution for utilities and consumers to seamlessly consolidate, process and manage data from distributed generation sources such as solar and wind.”

SmartGridCity™ Gets Plug-In Electric Vehicles

Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity™ project may have missed out on the latest round of ARRA funding from the Obama Administration, but it is getting ten new Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicles(PHV), courtesy of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc.

The vehicles will be the focus of an interdisciplinary research project coordinated by the University of Colorado at Boulder Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), a new joint venture between the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
 
 ”As a founding member of RASEI’s Leadership Council, we see this as a natural fit for Toyota,” said Chris Hostetter, TMS group vice president, advanced product strategy and product planning. “Future customers will have high expectations for these emerging technologies. Demonstration programs like this will ensure that the vehicles we bring to market will not just meet customer expectations, but exceed them.”

RASEI, Xcel Energy and TMS will use this program to gather data on vehicle performance and charging patterns, consumer behavior and preferences, as well as electric utility/customer interactions.  The locale offers the additional benefit of monitoring high altitude, cold climate performance of Toyota’s first-generation lithium-ion battery.

“We know that PHVs coupled with smart charging techniques can reduce carbon emissions,” said Jay Herrmann, regional vice president for Xcel Energy. “Partnerships like this can bring us closer to delivering new solutions that can conserve energy, save natural resources and reduce dependence on foreign oil.”

The ten vehicles participating in the project are part of a 150 vehicle demonstration fleet arriving in the U.S. in early 2010. The Prius PHV is targeted to achieve a maximum electric only range of approximately 12 miles and will be capable of achieving highway speeds in electric only mode.  For longer distances, the PHV concept reverts to “hybrid mode” and operates like a regular Prius. Vehicle delivery is scheduled for March 2010. 

Smart Meters Suggest Savings

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jennifer Robison

Here’s your chance to weigh in: NV Energy wants to give you control over how much you pay for your electricity. “Inconceivable,” you snort. “This, from the company that charges the equivalent of Andorra’s gross domestic product for air conditioning in July?”

Believe it, said Michael Yackira, president and chief executive officer. The power utility won $138 million in federal stimulus funds Tuesday for a three-year, $298 million project to replace every electric meter in Nevada with a smart meter executives say will let ratepayers direct energy use year-round.

Some research shows consumers could pare power bills as much as 50 percent a month with the new technology. Yackira said the company needs to test those claims in a pilot program, and that the $160 million NV Energy must invest in the initiative probably will appear in power rates later. NV Energy’s grant was part of $3.4 billion in government funds given to 100 projects aimed at modernizing the nation’s power grid. In addition to smart meters, the grants also will pay for automation at utility substations, digital transformers and grid sensors. The grants ranged from $400,000 to $200 million.

Announcing the awards Tuesday in Florida, President Obama said a modern grid could give consumers more control over power costs and spur development of renewable energy. Meters now give NV Energy information on power consumption at home. NV Energy collects those statistics and sends them to ratepayers as a monthly bill.

Smart meters will reverse the informational flow, allowing NV Energy to send detailed consumption numbers to consumers via a small plug-in display inside the home. Among figures on tap would be how much your bill is so far in the month, what the cost of power per kilowatt was and what it will be in the next hour, and perhaps even what you could save if you unplugged energy vampires such as plasma-screen televisions.

The idea is to show consumers real-time energy costs and empower decisions on reducing electric bills. For example, ratepayers who notice a cheaper cost per kilowatt on the schedule in two hours could wait until then to run their dishwasher.