Xcel Energy to Pass Costs of SmartGridCity on to Ratepayers

I was in Denver over the weekend and read an article about Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity project in Boulder.  The PUC there approved a rate hike so they could pass the costs on to consumers.  OK I with them so far...seems reasonable that people pay for the upgrade.  However as I read on I had a "hmmm" moment.

A rate hike including the projected costs had already been approved.  This was for the overrun since the project costs three times what it was supposed to..which means the rate hike will be even higher.  Hmmm..though I'm still not writing them off yet.  After all they are on the bleeding edge on this smart grid stuff taking what they call a holistic approach to the smart grid.  I applaud them for taking a leadership position.

Where they completely lost me is that they said they wouldn't do this again or expand the program..what??  They decide to lead the country in this and become a role model, go through a huge learning curve and then bag on the great stuff they did.  They basically said it was too expensive and would look at ways to spend 25% of what they did to get 75% of the return...hmmm.. so much for the visionary stuff.

The worst thing is that this is going to make future projects from other utilities harder to get through.  Opponents will have plenty of fodder from this to slow, reduce or even stop smart grid roll outs.  I can only hope that Xcel will extremely forthcoming in sharing their data and "scar tissue" with others to help them be successful in deploying these across the country.