Xcel increases shareholder value. Dividend increase hits 23 straight years

If anyone believes this is about safety of their constituents- spoiler alert - it’s not. I have lived here my entire life. I remember how utilities were under of the purvey of “the public service company of colorado”. Here’s all that is needed to be known: 1. I live in a series of neighborhoods with UNDERGROUND utilities. I also live next to a neighborhood that is on a city owned golf course. 2. xcel cut power at 9:45am yesterday and it’s still not on. “they must inspect all of the lines before energizing them” yet in a 2 mile square area I drove last night and today - not ONE xcel truck/crew is to be seen. The block over - the one on the city owned golf course with the same underground utilities - never lost power just like the city owned golf course! It’s a Christmas Miracle! So this practice started after xcel was sued for libel for the Marshall fire obviously… Xcel is a fortune 500 company with a shareholder dividend that has increased for a miraculous 22 straight years. The PUC needs to put the pressure on this company to increase its constituents value and not just its shareholders’ value. There is absolutely no reason for this. In high risk areas with above ground utilities..sure potentially. But even then the timelines they advertise should be accurate and the blatant misrepresentation of their restoral efforts needs scrutiny. They are softballing the messaging now in my area that since another PSPS may occur tomorrow and well we haven’t gotten around to energizing your UNDERGROUND lines until we can inspect them…it may be a continuousdays long outage. This is either being handled by a group of people that are incompetent or malevolent, not sure which, but I do know this: They are doing what they have been incentevized to do - maximize shareholder value. The onus and indeed the mandate of the PUC is to hold them accountable. They need to invest in upgrades - upgrades to control systems, moving lines below grade in high risk areas. But if they can’t keep areas powered with underground utilities then what are we doing here…

This isn’t public safety this is balance sheet safety.