More foot-dragging by Xcel Energy with installation of smart meters

It is February of 2024 and only now has Xcel Energy posted its schedule for installation of smart electric meters in Colorado for the year 2024.  You can see it here (archived here).  Conspicuously absent is any mention of Summit or Eagle counties.  The schedule does list “fourth quarter of 2024” for the following mountain locations:

    • Mountain locations east of Summit and Eagle counties scheduled for smart meter installation in 4Q24:
      • Black Hawk
      • Central City
      • Empire
      • Evergreen
      • Idaho Springs
    • Mountain locations west of Summit and Eagle counties scheduled for smart meter installation in 4Q24:
      • Fruita
      • Glenwood Springs
      • Grand Junction
      • Parachute
      • Rifle
      • Silt

The point of the smart meters is to enable the electric company to charge for electricity based upon the time of day.  See blog article.

This makes it look like Xcel Energy will not reach Summit and Eagle counties with its smart meters until 2025.

Time-of-day usage billing

click to enlarge

There are many states, including Colorado, where the electric company has worked it out with the state regulator to be able to charge for electricity based upon the time of day.  In Colorado, the cheap time is from 7 PM to 1PM Monday through Friday, and cheap time also happens all day Saturday and Sunday and some holidays.  If one has battery storage, this is an opportunity to engage in some arbitrage.   Continue reading “Time-of-day usage billing”

Inaugural post

This is the inaugural post for this blog.

I will be writing about this system which has the following:

  • about sixteen kilowatts of solar panels
  • two inverters providing about 18 kilowatts of inverter capacity
  • two Tesla Powerwalls
  • a Tesla Backup Gateway

The system has two whole-house surge protectors installed.