From the annual New York Times Magazine Year in Ideas issue: Smart Grids
By CLAY RISEN - In March, Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based power utility, announced plans to build the country’s first city-scale “smart grid” in Boulder, Colo. It’s a response to what economists would call a tragedy of the commons: people use as much energy as they are willing to pay for, without giving any 
thought to how their use affects the overall amount of energy available. And because traditional power grids are “dumb” — that is, there’s no way to monitor power use once it leaves the station — utilities err on the side of oversupply, which wastes energy and harms the environment. Enter Xcel’s $100 million initiative, called SmartGridCity, a set of technologies that give both energy providers and their customers more control over power consumption..." (From Xcel, Smart Grid City Technology Overview. )
Also from the Ideas Issue:
By CLAY RISEN - In March, Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based power utility, announced plans to build the country’s first city-scale “smart grid” in Boulder, Colo. It’s a response to what economists would call a tragedy of the commons: people use as much energy as they are willing to pay for, without giving any
thought to how their use affects the overall amount of energy available. And because traditional power grids are “dumb” — that is, there’s no way to monitor power use once it leaves the station — utilities err on the side of oversupply, which wastes energy and harms the environment. Enter Xcel’s $100 million initiative, called SmartGridCity, a set of technologies that give both energy providers and their customers more control over power consumption..." (From Xcel, Smart Grid City Technology Overview. )
Also from the Ideas Issue:
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