How Xcel Energy Plans to Help Customers Cut Electric Bills

Revamping the electricity grid -- a focus of the $787 billion stimulus package that President Obama signed in February -- is a strategic challenge for utility companies like Xcel Energy. Meeting that challenge, says Xcel CIO Mike Carlson, will depend on information technology.

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Xcel is in the middle of a $100 million pilot, SmartGridCity, that aims to give customers IT-based tools for managing their electricity consumption. During the past year, Xcel has begun equipping up to 45,000 homes and small businesses in Boulder, Colo., (as well as the distribution grid) with sensors that will monitor the energy usage of its customers. The sensors transmit this information to an online dashboard that customers can view, then use to make decisions about how much power they want to consume and when. As consumers cut their power use (and bills), less power will be wasted, reducing Xcel's costs and ultimately its carbon footprint. The project is among a handful of IT-based electricity management projects in the United States, says Doug Washburn, a Forrester Research analyst.

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