AMI 2.0: Inside Xcel Energy’s journey to deploy 3 million smart meters

An Xcel Energy employee installs a smart meter in Minnesota. (Courtesy: Xcel Energy)

Storytelling may not seem like a core function of operating an electric utility. For one, engineers are often more inclined to digest large data sets before diving into poetic prose.

But every investment a utility makes begins with a story rooted in customer benefit. Without a clear and sound story, regulators will slam the book shut on any sizeable budget request.

The story behind Xcel Energy’s push to deploy 3.5 million smart meters begins and ends with the customer in mind. It had three main themes, according to Michael Lamb, Xcel’s senior vice president of distribution and gas: 1) provide customers with time-of-day energy usage data; 2) improve power outage response, while reducing the frequency; and 3) reduce costs by automating meter reading.

Aside from supply chain constraints, regulatory approval was the trickiest step for Xcel Energy to navigate, Lamb said. Other utilities have had similar experiences: Eversource, to give one example, still doesn’t know how it’s going to recover costs from its smart meter program.

“As a lesson learned, I’d focus more on that storytelling, highlighting the benefits that are not necessarily intuitively obvious,” Lamb told POWERGRID International. “How do you quantify and tell the story about the added value? That sometimes is a difficult story to tell.”

Watch the full interview with Xcel Energy senior vice president of distribution and gas on the POWERGRID International YouTube channel

Xcel recently achieved the milestone of installing 2 million Itron smart meters with another 1.5 million on the way. The move was intended to upgrade from automated meter reading (AMR) technology deployed decades earlier to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), colloquially referred to as smart meters.

As the name suggests, AMR meters are able to automate meter reading, but are less sophisticated than AMI meters, which can “automatically and remotely measure electricity use, connect and disconnect service, detect tampering, identify and isolate outages, and monitor voltage,” according to the Department of Energy.

More than 119 million smart meters were installed in the U.S. by 2022 based on data from the Energy Information Administration. Residential customers accounted for about 88% of total AMI installations, and about 73% of total residential electric meters were AMI meters.

Xcel’s bet is already paying off, Lamb said, and the business case for smart meters is even stronger than when it was first proposed. Remote disconnection capability saved the utility $2.1 million in fuel costs in 2023 by disconnecting vacant homes.

Lamb sees AMI as a critical piece of the energy transition, not to mention Xcel’s goal of reducing carbon emissions 80% by 2030 and delivering 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.

As variable renewable energy further penetrates the generation mix, and electric vehicle adoption spreads, Lamb believes smart meters will play a “critical role in helping balance that energy ecosystem.”

“I’m super excited for that,” he said.

Trump’s ‘unpredictability’ shakes investors – This Week in Cleantech

This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.
wind turbines in front of an orange sunset

Renewables permitting has been ‘paralyzed’ by Trump – This Week in Cleantech

This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less.