Glendale's smart grid project is out of money

Glendale Water & Power officials have spent about $51 million to replace traditional analog meters with smart meters and implement the back-end system. About $30 million is from Glendale, $1 million from the state and the rest from the federal grant.

Some of the infrastructure needed to complete the smart grid has already been purchased, but the utility can't afford to set it up, angering Glendale Water & Power commissioners.

“I'm very concerned, I have to say, when I hear things like what you said which is, you know: ‘We bought this, but we don't have anyone to install it,'” said commission President Zanku Armenian at a meeting this week. “This stuff is aging as we speak and we're not getting any benefit after having spent the money to purchase things.”

But the Department of Energy has offered other utilities an extension, officials said.

Keri Fulton, a Department of Energy spokeswoman, said in an email this week that the project must be completed by September 2015 and federal officials are reviewing Glendale's extension request. Representatives from the agency plan to visit Glendale later this year.

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