AMI in Southern Colorado
Advanced Metering Infrastructure allows Black Hills Energy to retrieve and analyze energy usage on request or through a pre-defined schedule. Black Hills' smart grid projects contribute to the national goal of an intelligent grid and serve the public interest of our customers.
Black Hills Energy serves 93,300 electric customers in 21 southern Colorado communities. We began installing AMI "smart meters"; with a pilot project in November 2008, when we installed 3,300 smart meters on Pueblo, Colo., area homes and businesses. In 2009, Black Hills Energy installed an additional 53,000 smart meters for Pueblo electric customers.
In October 2009, Black Hills Corporation announced that the Department of Energy had selected each of its electric utility subsidiaries - Black Hills Energy, Black Hills Power and Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power - for smart grid investment grant funding of $16.7 million. Black Hills Energy received $6.1 million in matching funds as part of the Department of Energy's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the installation of up to an additional 42,000 AMI smart meters and communications infrastructure.
Black Hills Energy is installing new meters at approximately 42,000 homes and businesses within its southern Colorado service territory in 2010. These meters will be installed outside of Pueblo, reaching Cañon City, Rocky Ford, Cripple Creek/Victor, Westcliffe and other rural communities.
If you have not received a smart meter yet and live in one of the communities identified above, you can expect:
- A letter from Black Hills Energy explaining the pilot program and the process that will be followed to install the new meters.
- That the average installation will take 10 minutes.
- That after the work is finished, our contractors will place a notice on your door informing you that your meter has been upgraded.
Project Benefits:
- Black Hills Energy has invested approximately $7 million in its AMI initiative and is realizing direct savings as a result of business optimization efforts. These savings are projected to continue year-to-year into the foreseeable future, saving Black Hills and its customers money in the long term.
- Black Hills Energy's AMI infrastructure enables the company's Demand Side Management initiative to support future savings in energy efficiency through its innovative new energy efficiency pilot programs. Learn more at www.bhehowto.com.
- Black Hills Energy's AMI initiative also provides the infrastructure to integrate with the company's outage management system by using smart meters to obtain outage and restoration information immediately.
For more information, please view our AMI Fact Sheet or contact Black Hills Energy at 888-890-5554.