By Laura Snider

Xcel Energy has begun charging customers across the state to recoup some of the skyrocketing costs the company has incurred building its smart grid project in Boulder.

In response, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has decided to take a larger role in regulating Xcel’s “SmartGridCity,” which commissioners say will increase the transparency of the project.

The smart grid already allows Xcel to read meters in Boulder remotely, route power around bottle-necked lines and detect power outages without relying on people calling in. Ultimately, the finished system will also allow customers to see real-time data reflecting their energy use and then make energy-conserving decisions about how household appliances draw power and when.

When Boulder was chosen for the smart grid project in March 2008, Xcel Energy projected that capital expenditures for the SmartGridCity would be about $15.3 million. By May 2009, the company had changed its projected cost to $27.9 million, and now it believes the total bill will reach $42.1 million, not including the costs of operating and maintaining the new grid.

A large part of the increased price tag is associated with the unanticipated difficulty of constructing the system’s fiber network.

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