Xcel communications have gotten WORSE in Dec. 2025 compared with Apr. 2024

Let me start this story with the week BEFORE the week of the Dec. 2025 PSPS. On Dec. 9th we got multiple messages from Xcel about a power outage that we did NOT have. On Dec. 11th we got 4 phone calls from Xcel in the middle of the night about another power outage they said we had, but did NOT, which kept us awake. So the next day I talked with an Xcel tech about a possible system error that was assigning homes to the wrong Xcel power circuits. He promised an "investigation" and that I would be sent the results by Dec. 19th. I have yet to hear the results. But those earlier events greatly undercut my confidence in info from Xcel during the windstorm and PSPS Dec. 17-21.

The sole improvement in Xcel communications this month compared with the April 2024 event was earlier public announcement of a possible PSPS. In every other ways we experienced it, communications were WORSE.

Let me say that I understand the need for a PSPS in Xcel's toolbox: it might prevent another Marshall fire being started by Xcel's inferior infrastructure. But it would be far better for Xcel to understand that the long-standing topography and meteorology of the chinooks on the east face of the Rockies should have mandated sturdier infrastructure decades ago (underground lines, redundancies in communications, etc.). That should be priority #1, not PSPS, which should be a temporary option until such improvements are complete.

A PSPS has the possible benefit of preventing downed lines preventing another fire, but it also has many downsides that should be considered and properly balanced before implementing a PSPS. It is not just that house lights are off, refrigerated food has to be thrown out, and other inconveniences. Medical equipment in homes doesn't work, vital communications can't be sent or received, there are special dangers for the elderly, etc.

With outside temperatures about 10 deg F around sunrise at our home, despite unseasonably warm temperatures in the flatlands, we were forced to drive through Boulder to a hotel in Longmont, through dangerous intersections with no traffic lights or blinking red lights. I'm sure that there must have been increased pedestrian/bicycle accidents and fender-benders. We witnessed mile-long traffic jams (e.g. along US 287, a major Colorado thoroughfare) due to traffic lights that were out or blinking red; this was extremely dangerous (and unnecessary being far away from the strongest winds and days after the wind emergency had ended) because many drivers did not understand how to handle the extremely frustrating situation.

My wife developed a medical emergency the night of our first outage (Nov. 17th) which was very painful though not life-threatening. But her appointment with her PCP doctor at Kaiser Baseline on Nov. 19th was cancelled because the medical office was closed due to the PSPS. When we went to Kaiser Rock Creek on Dec. 20th to see a doctor, as advised by a telehealth doctor, the building was open, but functions like meeting with a doctor or getting meds from the pharmacy weren't possible: the Rock Creek computer system was down due to the power outage. Hundreds of other patients were similarly turned away, some probably dangerously. Does Xcel take such consequences of a PSPS into consideration?

I complained in spring 2024 about the absurdly incompetent outage map. Xcel knows (or should know) the exact boundaries of power outage areas. Instead, the outage map -- when working -- shows a single symbol for an outage that might affect thousands of customers including those a dozen miles away from the symbol. The Dec. 17th outage map showed NO SYMBOL within 12 miles of our home when we suddenly experienced an "unplanned outage" (we were not in the PSPS zone that day and probably lost power due to trees falling on power lines). People need to know -- as Xcel certainly knows -- the exact boundaries of outage areas. Is an outage affecting an elderly neighbor who needs attention? If my car is short on gas, which gas stations are in or out of an outage boundary? What medical facilities are outside an outage boundary? Xcel's incompetent outage maps provide zero help on such vital issues.

But then the badly designed outage map also has no built-in redundancy. During the hour after our Dec. 19th outage began (that day we were in the PSPS zone), we were directed to find more info on the outage map. Of course, that is a lie: the outage map provides no more useful info even when it is working. But during that critical hour for us the outage map was BLANK. There was just a rectangle showing nothing...no streets, no cities, no outage symbols, just plain NOTHING. Later that morning the map was partly restored, but it was badly incomplete. Although many thousands of customers near Nederland were without power, as planned for the PSPS, the closest outage symbol was in the western part of the City of Boulder, up to 20 miles away from affected customers. What kind of info is THAT??? If the outage map is a major part of Xcel communications, there should be REDUNDANT ways to have it available and operating properly. Xcel is badly negligent in having such an incompetent and badly maintained map. I complained about this to Xcel and to the Colorado PUC last year, but nothing was done to fix it.

On Saturday evening, we and many hundreds of our neighbors received notice that our power had been restored. We in our hotel 35 miles away had no idea if that was true, but there were immediate reports on our neighborhood Google Group that while some people reported restored power, a similar fraction of people reported that their announced restoration hadn't happened -- they still didn't have power. Outrageously and dishonestly, Xcel later showed that there was a "new unplanned outage" in the area that began just at the time they had announced full restoration. The truth was not that that this was a new wind-caused outage but correction of an Xcel communications error.

Perhaps the windstorm merited activation of a PSPS, but I don't believe that the wide area covered and the duration it remained active was properly balanced against the awful downsides of its implementation in Dec. 2025. It is doubly insulting that Xcel gets away with not reimbursing the massive financial losses for perhaps a quarter million individuals and companies. The PUC must deal more effectively with this out-of-control electric company.