Utilities must be required to SHARE LIABILITY for their decisions to pre-emptively cut off electrical service

I am a resident of Evergreen, Colorado, a small business owner and rely on medical devices at home.

For XCEL to be allowed to unilaterally decide to pre-emptively shut off power in anticipation of an "act of god" without sharing the liabilities and costs of those decisions does not serve communities, businesses, governments, or individuals - it only limits XCEL's legal and financial liability. This system must be changed.

Utilities should share liabilities with local governments and insurance through new law(s) that allow for limited liability protection for utilities that can demonstrate that they have adopted and maintain technologies (buried lines, microgrids, "smart" transmission infrastructure, &tc.) for their transmission infrastructure. Such liability protection should be subject to review by governments and PUC regulators on an annual basis, and should only be granted when a government body, subject to political accountability makes a declaration that the utility will be allowed to consider pro-active service shut-downs.

Utilities MUST be required to share the liabilities and costs of their unilateral decision(s) to pre-emptively-de-energize. Systems that favor customers and communities must be established to allow for claims and prompt payment. These systems must be accessible and put the onus on utilities if they fight or don't pay claims timely, should be overseen by a neutral, 3rd party, and should have significant penalties for utilities that try and game the system or not comply.

Utilities should be required to pre-plan for outages (see Connecticut PUC regulations) in a way that ensures restoration does not take longer than any "act-of-god" event. Utilities should be heavily-penalized for under-0resourcing or delaying power restoration. Extra time for restoration must cost utilities MORE than pre-planning additional crews, overtime, subcontracts &tc. that would be necessary to restore service in less time than the deliberate outage was maintained.

I lost hundreds of dollars of food waste. My business was late on deliverables due to inability to perform without power. This caused reputational damage to my business. I was unable to stay and sleep at home due to the outage , as medical equipment doesn't work without electricity.

Despite all my losses, XCEL had the temerity and gall to pre-announce that they would not entertain any liability for their decision to pre-emptively shut off our service. XCEL posted outrageously-huge profits (billions) for the last several years despite paid settlements and system upgrades, Now XCEL is approaching the PUC to ask for ANOTHER rate increase while customers suffered extensive unreimbursed losses? The system isn't working and this is outrageous.

Communities, businesses, governments and individuals in Colorado are not well-served by the existing "PSPS" regulations. Utilities' ability to proactively-shut off service should be enjoined until new, customer-focused mechanisms are put in-place that force equitable sharing of liability by utilities if/when they choose to shut off power. The current system only protects utility corporations and their shareholders and must not be allowed to continue.