Public Safety Power Shutoff

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  No Xcel Consequences

  by DanO, 5 months ago

  Why is Xcel not liable for planned outages that greatly exceed the time frames originally communicated? Easily $600 of food lost, over 50,000 people, that’s $30MM.
  in Genesee, our mobile service only allowed texts, but Xcel sent out emails?
  when Xcel has no penalty, no consequences to poorly handling a planned outage, of course they will do it again? Hardening their power lines in a hilly, mountainous area should have been happening for decades, not a new 2025-26 program.
  Colorado President Kenney response is tone deaf. ONLY 50,000 people, how about next time when it’s Denver property.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Why is Xcel not liable for planned outages that greatly exceed the time frames originally communicated? Easily $600 of food lost, over 50,000 people, that’s $30MM.
  in Genesee, our mobile service only allowed texts, but Xcel sent out emails?
  when Xcel has no penalty, no consequences to poorly handling a planned outage, of course they will do it again? Hardening their power lines in a hilly, mountainous area should have been happening for decades, not a new 2025-26 program.
  Colorado President Kenney response is tone deaf. ONLY 50,000 people, how about next time when it’s Denver property.

  
  

  
  

  
  
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  Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS)

  by Astemdw, 5 months ago

  We were told that our power could have possibly be shutoff as part of the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) at Noon on the first day of wind in the front range last week. Our power went off at 9:51 am, not noon. Our house on the far east side of Golden on Eldridge never experienced any bad winds that day, but the power stayed off in access of 28 hours. We lost over 50 pounds food from our refrigerator. The next outage, the next morning we were experiencing no wind again, and power went off at approximately 5am. If... Continue reading

  We were told that our power could have possibly be shutoff as part of the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) at Noon on the first day of wind in the front range last week. Our power went off at 9:51 am, not noon. Our house on the far east side of Golden on Eldridge never experienced any bad winds that day, but the power stayed off in access of 28 hours. We lost over 50 pounds food from our refrigerator. The next outage, the next morning we were experiencing no wind again, and power went off at approximately 5am. If it wasn’t for the kindness of our son, my wife could have died due to no way she could power her CPAP machine, as she suffers from Combined sleep apnea. Our son brought us a battery operated generator. We lost more food with this second outage, and again we experienced no extreme wind on the far east side of Golden, near Arvada.
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  How to not treat your customers

  by Eas156, 5 months ago
  I live in the mountains and rely on power for heat, water and of course power. I have lived in Colorado all my life and have never had to go through what we did this week.

  The original notification was for power to go off at 10 am on Dec 17th to 6pm the same day. We then received a notification that power would be back on early at 1:15pm. Little did I know I would not have a shower for the next 4 days. We had just bought a ton of raw dog food for Black Friday. this needs... Continue reading

  I live in the mountains and rely on power for heat, water and of course power. I have lived in Colorado all my life and have never had to go through what we did this week.

  The original notification was for power to go off at 10 am on Dec 17th to 6pm the same day. We then received a notification that power would be back on early at 1:15pm. Little did I know I would not have a shower for the next 4 days. We had just bought a ton of raw dog food for Black Friday. this needs to be frozen and with over 1k in food we would have moved it to a stable non accepted from Xcel energy freezer if we had any idea of what was to come. We ended up losing all our food in our fridge and managed to save all our dog food. We then received notification that our power was back on. Yet I was still sitting in the dark. I called Xcel and was hung o by Dennis. He was very rude and didn't want o help. I called back and was not hung up o but when I said there was very little wind at my home the representative said I guess the transformers are just exploding on their own basically calling me a liar. If you need to shut down power that's fine but don't give a false video and then extend it to 4 days. We need time to prepare. Also when I call in don't give me a hard time when I am just trying to get info that should have been provided. Xcel is too big to fail and we saw they can do whatever they want.
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  Low Density Disregard

  by MadhuriMa, 5 months ago

  I travel quite a bit in countries that are taking on the challenges of developing their economies. A major priority in less developed countries, particularly in remote regions, is access to electricity and internet connectivity. Over the years, I'm consistently shocked to return home and find how little reliable access I have had to these basic public utilities for the past 35 years (enjoying much more sophisticated and reliable connectivity in remote jungles of Central and South America, The Caribbean, The Tahitian Islands, and Savannas of African Countries).

  Until 2012, Dial Up Speed was the only option for my home... Continue reading

  I travel quite a bit in countries that are taking on the challenges of developing their economies. A major priority in less developed countries, particularly in remote regions, is access to electricity and internet connectivity. Over the years, I'm consistently shocked to return home and find how little reliable access I have had to these basic public utilities for the past 35 years (enjoying much more sophisticated and reliable connectivity in remote jungles of Central and South America, The Caribbean, The Tahitian Islands, and Savannas of African Countries).

  Until 2012, Dial Up Speed was the only option for my home which is located about two miles outside of Boulder City proper. Extended electrical outages were also very common and remained so until the last few years. In 2013, the phone company did provide high-speed internet access via landline, but decided that the lack of density in the foothills wasn't worth the expense and quickly discontinued that service. Satellite connectivity did eventually find its way to our foothills homes, an expensive and unreliable nightmare from shoddy internet companies like Hugesnet and Viasat. Until Starlink opened its availability in 2023, I've been wrestling with unreliable, expensive and slow, low-data, internet issues. Yes - only for the past two years have we had reliable, affordable, fast internet!! This is Boulder, Colorado!!

  My understanding is that GoldHill and other residents further up the canyon do have fiber optic connectivity due to an upgrade in repairs from the devastation of the 2010 fire. My point is that reliable electric and internet connectivity in the foothills, has never been enough of a concern for utility companies or our county government. Will it take another fire like in 2010 for us to upgrade the current state of our wildly out-of-date electrical equipment? My argument is that it is the responsibility of our electrical service provider to do so proactively, to do so now! I do not know the details on why we had to wait for three days after the major winds subsided to finally see our lights on again, but it seems obvious that the re-connectivity issue after wind events would also be solved by upgraded equipment.

  Our property taxes have skyrocketed over the past few years, leaving many old-time residents no option but to sell their homes and move to affordable locations (the reason prop 13 in California was established - something else for Boulder County to consider). Can Boulder County reasonably hold the argument that our foothills properties are worth their assessed value without access to the basic utilities of electricity and internet?

  We must look honestly at these issues. At how far behind Boulder has fallen and the extent of this negligence in providing electricity from a dangerously outdated electrical infrastructure. At the inescapable truth concerning how life-threatening the situation has become. Our attention must shift to solving this negligence and providing safe and reliable electricity, and - maybe throw in some broadband connectivity while we're at it. We have established that the current situation is dangerous, negligent and life-threatening. What would be the responsibility of any company when faced with this truth?

  
  
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  Dr.Kenneth Suslak

  by Suslak, 5 months ago

  We are 82 year old seniors living in the Boulder Foothills. We were informed of the shutoff by XCel but did not expect 6 days. We had to go to a local coffee house to get updates as we had no service or phones and kept getting confusing updates as to when service would be resumed. As a result, we were not only confused but isolated and freightened. I could not contact family or my patients( I am a psychologist) to let them know what was happening. We lost our refrigerated food at a great cost to us.The only heat... Continue reading

  We are 82 year old seniors living in the Boulder Foothills. We were informed of the shutoff by XCel but did not expect 6 days. We had to go to a local coffee house to get updates as we had no service or phones and kept getting confusing updates as to when service would be resumed. As a result, we were not only confused but isolated and freightened. I could not contact family or my patients( I am a psychologist) to let them know what was happening. We lost our refrigerated food at a great cost to us.The only heat we had was a gas fireplace. We were afraid to leave in case of a fire

  We would appreciate a response and also wonder about compensation
• Share Our experience of the December 2025 Shut Offs on Facebook Share Our experience of the December 2025 Shut Offs on Twitter Share Our experience of the December 2025 Shut Offs on Linkedin Email Our experience of the December 2025 Shut Offs link

  Our experience of the December 2025 Shut Offs

  by LilyR, 5 months ago
  My husband is 81 and I am 72. We experienced a great deal of stress and anxiety during the shut offs. We lost power overnight on Tuesday, and then for a much longer period beginning Friday morning. Although the temperatures weren't below freezing, it became quite cold in our home, and we were forced to get in bed for warmth early. We had to buy a propane camp stove so we could boil water and do some basic cooking. Xcel let us know by phone and text that there would be an outage, although it wasn't enough time to prepare... Continue reading

  My husband is 81 and I am 72. We experienced a great deal of stress and anxiety during the shut offs. We lost power overnight on Tuesday, and then for a much longer period beginning Friday morning. Although the temperatures weren't below freezing, it became quite cold in our home, and we were forced to get in bed for warmth early. We had to buy a propane camp stove so we could boil water and do some basic cooking. Xcel let us know by phone and text that there would be an outage, although it wasn't enough time to prepare. The whole thing was very, very inconvenient, and we are both still extremely anxious about future shut offs, especially in cold weather when we would be without heat. We did have some food spoilage. We have battery-powered lanterns that we bought after the April shut off so we were prepared in that way. These shutoffs don't seem like a viable solution. Why can't this billion dollar corporation get on the ball and do the upgrades that are needed such as burying the power lines and reinforcing the poles that are ancient and rotting? My husband saw the downed lines on Highway 66, and the old poles had snapped at the base. I don't understand why Boulder doesn't municipalize our power so that we aren't dependent on an uncaring corporation that is merely trying to protect themselves from more lawsuits due to their negligence. Longmont did not cut the power off for anyone, but Xcel is not their provider.
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  Some Common Sense Questions.

  by That Guy!, 5 months ago
  We live and have a business in the Golden / Jefferson County area with two commercial properties. Here are some simple questions:

  
  

  1. When building an addition to our one commercial building in Golden CO we were forced to engineer to 150 mph wind loads. If the residents and businesses in the area have to adhere to these criteria is it that difficult to ask that your supporting utilities can carry the same rating? If the City of Golden requires this, why are they not holding Xcel accountable.
  
  2. Does Xcel employees have watches? If you say you are turning... Continue reading

  We live and have a business in the Golden / Jefferson County area with two commercial properties. Here are some simple questions:

  
  

  1. When building an addition to our one commercial building in Golden CO we were forced to engineer to 150 mph wind loads. If the residents and businesses in the area have to adhere to these criteria is it that difficult to ask that your supporting utilities can carry the same rating? If the City of Golden requires this, why are they not holding Xcel accountable.
  
  2. Does Xcel employees have watches? If you say you are turning power of at 10am, that is not 9:50 am. We were in the process of shutting down servers and heavy industrial equipment when you threw the switch. Surely you can do it on time? That is a very dangerous thing to do and can cause harm to machines and computers.

  Asking us to be prepared when you act randomly is not ok.

  When poles break in the wind it is not a sign to show how hard the wind blew, it is a sign that the poles are undersized. The wind is not new, as illustrated by the wind load requirement on buildings.
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  Shut down started after winds were dying down

  by CH, 5 months ago
  Twenty fours years of Xcel's lack of power line maintenance and poor customer service is just too much. This PSP episode was unforgivable. We lost power due to extreme winds on Dec 9 and Dec 11th. No PSP then but it moved my 7' x 12' shed 16 inches so not a gentle breeze. 85+mph winds in the early hours of the 19th. No shut down then but at 5 am when the winds were dying down they did their PSP. Since Xcel hasn't being doing regular maintenance for years in our area (Xcel repair crews have told us this)... Continue reading

  Twenty fours years of Xcel's lack of power line maintenance and poor customer service is just too much. This PSP episode was unforgivable. We lost power due to extreme winds on Dec 9 and Dec 11th. No PSP then but it moved my 7' x 12' shed 16 inches so not a gentle breeze. 85+mph winds in the early hours of the 19th. No shut down then but at 5 am when the winds were dying down they did their PSP. Since Xcel hasn't being doing regular maintenance for years in our area (Xcel repair crews have told us this), we knew the power would not be restored quickly. We received multiple conflicting restoration times on both the 19th and the 20th. At 9,400 ft elevation, it was below freezing and some pipes froze in our heating system. We couldn't use the wood stove due to down drafts from the direction of the wind. Since Xcel hasn't been doing maintenance, it takes a lot longer to get power back because when they re-energize, it blows out condensers, fuses and transformers that are weak and they don't have enough parts on their trucks so a warehouse run becomes necessary to complete the power restoration. We have experienced years of this problem and the poor communication with Xcel. Unless you have a billing issue, you are forced into their phone carousel which has numbers for their AI system but not everything you may be calling about is covered and speaking with a person is not offered to get a problem resolved or a question answered. Often the system hangs up on you and you have to start the process over. So basically no customer service and no maintenance. After a total of 47 years of being a customer of Xcel, I know what Xcel customer service was in the past and what it has become now. Why Xcel has not been fined for negligence is beyond me. Did Xcel really prevent fires or did they cause them by making people desperate enough to take risks trying to use unsafe alternatives to heat their homes? I have seen power poles burning on hot, dry summer days due to Xcel equipment failures due to lack of maintenance. Where was the fire concern then and why didn't they step up their maintenance to prevent the fire risk and to make a quick PSP restoration actually possible? How many people have been harmed by Xcel that have no recourse for the damages and losses?

  
  
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  Power cut with underground power lines

  by Breid, 5 months ago

  Our power was cut off twice, on Wednesday and Friday, even though we live in a community that has underground power lines. But here’s the kicker 1/2 our community was dark but just across the street the houses had power. I guess the winds across the street weren’t as strong😡as ours. So stupid! Explain that Xcel!

  Our power was cut off twice, on Wednesday and Friday, even though we live in a community that has underground power lines. But here’s the kicker 1/2 our community was dark but just across the street the houses had power. I guess the winds across the street weren’t as strong😡as ours. So stupid! Explain that Xcel!
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  Very stressful

  by H, 5 months ago
  My 3 day power outage was difficult because the was zero communication from xcel. Their website was never up to date. Status reports had no information or estimate as when the power might go back on. Because we were unprepared, we lost everything in our fridge and freezer. One of the nights was absolutely freezing. The lack of updates was very upsetting. We couldn't make plans because of this. My neighbor is on oxygen and had to leave because she had no estimate as to when electricity would be back. There was no need to turn the electricity off on... Continue reading

  My 3 day power outage was difficult because the was zero communication from xcel. Their website was never up to date. Status reports had no information or estimate as when the power might go back on. Because we were unprepared, we lost everything in our fridge and freezer. One of the nights was absolutely freezing. The lack of updates was very upsetting. We couldn't make plans because of this. My neighbor is on oxygen and had to leave because she had no estimate as to when electricity would be back. There was no need to turn the electricity off on Friday. Ridiculous. Preemptive shut offs shouldn't be a thing. Weather reports are not always accurate in Colorado. Very unpredictable here. Shutting off electricity should be for real emergencies only. The CEO of xcel should offer anyone in Colorado a generator at cost. And every day we go without electricity, so should he.