Community and Small-Scale Grid Innovation - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 175

not want to continue to accept Xcel Energy's power which relies on coal for over half of
its energy generation, though the Colorado Renewable Portfolio Standard requires that 30
percentofitsgenerationcomesfromrenewablesby2020.Currently,Xcelproducesover20
percentofitselectricityinColoradofromrenewablesourcesandhasthehighestpercentage
of renewable sales of U.S. utilities (Ceres 2014 ) .
The events unfolding in Boulder are indicative of power struggles that are emerging
throughout the world. Communities are increasingly attempting to wrest local control
over their electricity systems from large, established centralized energy companies. These
struggles are part of a new set of demands and expectations with regard to electricity.
While electricity system management has traditionally been guided by the need to provide
low-cost reliable power, concerns about the environment, climate change, security, and
public health have contributed new expectations for the energy system, and fundamentally
altered the energy landscape. The Boulder story illustrates tensions that have emerged as
part of revamping the electricity system to fulfill expanded social expectations related to
enhanced efficiency and sustainability.
7.4.1 Plans for a Smart Grid City
In 2008, media ranging from MIT Technology Review to the design-oriented Inhabitat
trumpeted the news about Boulder's smart grid. Inhabitat 's readers learned that Boulder
was “poised to become the nation's first fully integrated Smart Grid City” (Trotter 2008 ) .
Readers learned from an extensive article in the Technology Review that Boulder, Colorado
“should soon boast the world's smartest - and thus most efficient - power grid” (Fairley
2008 ) . The Review article included information from Xcel's then chief information officer,
who explained that the company had chosen Boulder because it provided an ideal site for
experimenting with different approaches to smart grid: a relatively isolated distribution
system, with a well-educated and environmentally conscious population. Its size also was
large enough to demonstrate how smart grid technologies would work on a commercial
scale, without being too large for a controlled experiment. E Magazine proclaimed Boulder
“the first to employ the smart grid citywide” (Martin 2010 p. 26). Early results from the
project were described as “impressive savings, increased reliability, and excitement for
what comes next” (p. 27).
Because media need to tell an exciting story, we sought out information directly from
Xcel Energy, thinking that, as the project leader, Xcel Energy could be expected to provide
a more balanced if less exciting perspective. Xcel's SmartGridCity webpage reads: