PSPS Impacts Causing Economic Harm and Forcing Unsustainable Resiliency Costs on Small Businesses

To the Colorado Public Utilities Commission,

My name is Susan Ganter, and I am writing on behalf of The Golden Mill, a food hall and social gathering place located in Golden, Colorado. I am submitting this letter as a public comment regarding the real-world impacts of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) on small businesses, and the difficult and costly decisions we are now being forced to consider as a result.

In December 2025, our business experienced an extended power outage. While this outage did not occur during our peak summer season, it resulted in significant and measurable harm. We lost revenue during the holiday period, incurred unplanned expenses to secure emergency power, and faced widespread price gouging for temporary generators and related services during a period of high demand. These were not optional costs — they were necessary to protect food safety, preserve inventory, and avoid a complete shutdown.

The December outage made one reality very clear: if a similar outage were to occur during the summer months — when our business is at its busiest — the impact would be catastrophic. Summer represents our highest revenue period, and it is also when PSPS events are more likely due to wildfire risk, high winds, and dry conditions. A multi-day outage during peak season would threaten the financial viability of our business.

As a result of this experience, we are now being forced to evaluate extremely expensive capital investments — including large-scale battery storage systems (such as Tesla Megapacks) or permanent natural gas generators — not because they are economically efficient, but because the risk of extended outages has become unacceptable. These systems can cost hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of dollars. For a small business, this is not a reasonable or sustainable burden to shoulder alone, especially when the underlying risk is driven by upstream grid conditions entirely outside our control.

I want to emphasize that this is not a complaint about safety. We understand the importance of wildfire prevention and public safety. However, the current PSPS framework effectively shifts the financial burden of grid risk mitigation onto individual businesses, without providing sufficient transparency, predictability, or support.

Based on our experience, I respectfully urge the Commission to consider the following actions:

1. Greater Transparency Around Distribution Feeders
   Businesses should be able to easily determine which distribution feeder serves their location, whether it includes overhead segments in wildfire risk areas, and whether that feeder has been subject to past PSPS events. This information is critical for informed business planning.

2. Clear Communication on Grid Hardening and Undergrounding Plans
   Utilities should provide publicly accessible information on whether specific feeders are scheduled for hardening, undergrounding, or other risk-reduction investments, and on what timeline. Without this visibility, businesses are forced to make long-term capital decisions in an information vacuum.

3. Financial Support for Resiliency Investments
   If PSPS events are expected to continue or increase, small businesses need support mechanisms. This could include:

   • Grant programs for battery storage or backup generation

   • Access to low-interest or state-backed loans for resiliency infrastructure

   • Incentives for hybrid solutions that reduce outage impacts while minimizing emissions

4. Oversight of Emergency Pricing During PSPS Events
   During our outage, we observed severe price escalation for temporary generators and emergency electrical services. The Commission should explore whether safeguards or oversight mechanisms are needed to prevent price gouging during declared PSPS or emergency events.

5. Recognition of Economic Harm in PSPS Planning
   PSPS planning and evaluation should explicitly account for economic harm to small businesses, including lost revenue, spoiled inventory, employee impacts, and long-term viability — not solely outage duration metrics.

Our business wants to be resilient. We want to plan responsibly. But without transparency, predictability, or financial support, PSPS events force small businesses into impossible tradeoffs between absorbing catastrophic losses or making capital investments that may not be economically viable.

We appreciate the Commission’s role in balancing safety, reliability, and economic impact, and we respectfully ask that the lived experience of small businesses be fully considered as PSPS policies and utility investments are evaluated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Susan Ganter
The Golden Mill
Golden, Colorado