Public Safety Power Shutoff

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  Xcel power preemptive power outages unsustainable

  by KimTT, 5 months ago

  Regarding the scheduled power outages during last week’s extreme wind events, I want to be clear that I understand the need for preemptive shutoffs when fire danger is high. Public safety must come first. However, the execution of these shutoffs and, more importantly, Xcel Energy’s communication and restoration process were unacceptable.

  Xcel did provide adequate notice for the initial shutoff on Wednesday. After that point, communications deteriorated significantly. Customers received a confusing and often contradictory series of texts, emails, and phone calls that provided little clarity on restoration timelines or next steps. After Wednesday’s power was off for an extended... Continue reading

  Regarding the scheduled power outages during last week’s extreme wind events, I want to be clear that I understand the need for preemptive shutoffs when fire danger is high. Public safety must come first. However, the execution of these shutoffs and, more importantly, Xcel Energy’s communication and restoration process were unacceptable.

  Xcel did provide adequate notice for the initial shutoff on Wednesday. After that point, communications deteriorated significantly. Customers received a confusing and often contradictory series of texts, emails, and phone calls that provided little clarity on restoration timelines or next steps. After Wednesday’s power was off for an extended amount of time, Xcel actually went “dark” for hours on Thursday morning. The lack of clear, consistent information created unnecessary frustration and hardship.

  Compounding this issue, a second preemptive shutoff occurred before power had even been fully restored from the first event. As a result, many customers experienced four to six consecutive days without electricity. That level of disruption is not reasonable and should not be considered acceptable under any circumstances.

  Xcel Energy reported nearly $2 billion in profits last year, with approximately 50% of those profits coming from Colorado customers. At the same time, the company regularly highlights infrastructure improvements and requests rate increases to fund them. Yet the extended restoration times—attributed to the need to manually walk power lines—suggest that system resiliency has not kept pace with those claims. Other utilities employ line sensors and advanced monitoring technologies to reduce restoration times, and Xcel should be doing the same. Additionally, it is past time for serious investment in burying power lines in high-wind, high-risk areas such as the foothills.

  Xcel is seeking a 10% rate increase for 2026. Rather than prioritizing shareholder returns, any increase approved by the Public Utilities Commission should be directed toward meaningful infrastructure improvements that reduce outages and improve reliability, including undergrounding lines where appropriate.

  High winds in the foothills are not a rare or unexpected event—they are a seasonal reality. If the new norm is multi-day outages following preemptive shutoffs, that approach is simply not viable. Extended power loss leads to spoiled food, no water for those on wells /pumps, business closures, inoperable gas stations, and medical offices unable to serve patients. Many customers do not have the financial means to install generators or battery backup systems, nor should that be an expectation.

  Xcel Energy must do better. Improved communication, faster restoration, and serious long-term infrastructure investment are not optional—they are essential.
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  Fix this by fining Xcel for each outage

  by blah151h15h, 5 months ago

  The disruption to our lives was absolutely unacceptable, even for those of us who didn't lose power but were near the outage area. First, Xcel's maps changed multiple times which made a fun game of trying to figure out if you were going to have power. Then, the school district canceled school *district wide* on Wednesday when it was totally inappropriate to do so. My child's school was canceled for on Friday because we were "too close" to the projected outage boundary. I get that it was the last week before break, but pulling kids out of school is detrimental... Continue reading

  The disruption to our lives was absolutely unacceptable, even for those of us who didn't lose power but were near the outage area. First, Xcel's maps changed multiple times which made a fun game of trying to figure out if you were going to have power. Then, the school district canceled school *district wide* on Wednesday when it was totally inappropriate to do so. My child's school was canceled for on Friday because we were "too close" to the projected outage boundary. I get that it was the last week before break, but pulling kids out of school is detrimental to their education. Also, I'm very concerned that the threshold for these types of outages is arbitrary and that we're going to see more of these than snow days going forward.

  
  

  At the end of the day the PUC has the power to make Xcel fix this by burying their lines in high wind corridors. It's absolutely unacceptable that we're 4 years post Marshall fire and still dealing with this. The solution is straightforward: fine Xcel every time they have to do one of these blackouts. The formula should be proportional to the number of people blacked out times the duration of the outage. Use the fine money to compensate those that suffer financial consequences from Xcel's continued incompetence. That will strongly incentivize Xcel to bury their lines instead of continuing to shirk their responsibilities. If the PUC can't get their act together, then Governor Polis should replace everyone on the commission.
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  Adjustments for future weather occurrences must be made

  by apure1212, 5 months ago

  As someone who worked in Louisville and had to evacuate during the Marshall Fire, I know how important it was to shut off the power because of similar extreme wind/drought to prevent another disaster. That being said, it has been 4 years since the Marshall Fire and that has been plenty of time to reinforce or update high risk areas. With over 200 BILLION dollars in profits, why has Xcel not taken care of their customers that fund their profits and paychecks? These weather events and conditions are not going away, it is time for action! Just having power shut... Continue reading

  As someone who worked in Louisville and had to evacuate during the Marshall Fire, I know how important it was to shut off the power because of similar extreme wind/drought to prevent another disaster. That being said, it has been 4 years since the Marshall Fire and that has been plenty of time to reinforce or update high risk areas. With over 200 BILLION dollars in profits, why has Xcel not taken care of their customers that fund their profits and paychecks? These weather events and conditions are not going away, it is time for action! Just having power shut offs because Xcel doesn't think that updating the infrastructure is important is unacceptable.

  
  

  I live in Green Mountain and our neighbors literally across the street and the whole neighborhood behind us had power while my complex and the apartments next door had our power shut off. My husband called Xcel to ask why and they told him they did not believe him and that everyone else must have had generators. The whole neighborhood behind us have generators, really? Not only did this happen twice this week, but the last shut off in 2024 and we were without power for 3 days. I was working 30 hours a week and taking 5 classes at the time, which means that I had very specific times I needed to work on assignments. Luckily this time I was out of school and did not have assignments to complete. It was understandable why the power needed to be shut off but why did everyone around us have power the whole time?! That is when my husband and I became very frustrated at the situation!

  
  

  Wednesday I attempted to save our fridge food by running to the store to get ice to fill up coolers. We lost all of that food. The Friday shut off, I attempted again to save the freezer food. Luckily we had only lost a few things but we buy meat on sale and stock the freezer so we can stay on a strict budget. I am about to start an internship and an online Master's degree and I can not afford to keep losing power like this. I will not be able to work during the internship (10 months long) so we really have to stretch our dollars when it comes to food and other essentials. I NEED to be able to do my assignments without fear of losing power for an extended period of time.

  
  

  My one neighbor has a breathing machine he needs for nighttime and our other neighbor had already gotten their Christmas food.
  
  It is time to get your head out of the sand, Xcel and take care of your customers properly!

  
  
  
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  Ambiguity Causes Wasted Time and Energy

  by PicnicRoadshow, 5 months ago

  I want safety for everyone, but Xcel is taking limiting their liability over the top. This entire event should be a case study in CYA gone awry.

  
  

  Xcel overcommunicated and WAY overestimated the areas that would be included in the PSPS in their original communication causing our family and probably others to needlessly worry and spend our time prepping for what their communications made seem like a certainty but never materialized. I spent my time prepping and stressing about something that became a non-event. I have enough other stuff in my life to deal with rather than worrying about an... Continue reading

  I want safety for everyone, but Xcel is taking limiting their liability over the top. This entire event should be a case study in CYA gone awry.

  
  

  Xcel overcommunicated and WAY overestimated the areas that would be included in the PSPS in their original communication causing our family and probably others to needlessly worry and spend our time prepping for what their communications made seem like a certainty but never materialized. I spent my time prepping and stressing about something that became a non-event. I have enough other stuff in my life to deal with rather than worrying about an Xcel caused power outage that would disrupt our lives for days and then having to plan and spend resources on it that are ultimately wasted.

  
  

  We did lose power for a few hours the first day, after being told we were no longer in the PSPS area. We received so many communications from telling us they didn't know when the power would be back on, that crews were assessing, only to have the power come back on an hour before they said it would (which I appreciate very much). The way the communicate, the frequency of it, and the ambiguity makes it seem like they are incompetent and flying by the seat of their pants as a company.

  
  

  This summer their subcontractors came through shredding the trees in our neighborhood, decreasing curb appeal and property value all in the name of safety, and I thought to mitigate events like this PSPS. In the first 5 years we lived in our home we rarely lost power or had a flicker. Now that they have been "making their network more resilient" we have power outages and flickers more frequently.

  
  

  Xcel would rather work on large infrastructure projects like the Colorado Power Pathway then doing projects that actually matter to their rate payers. They need to focus on burying as many lines in as many areas as they can (urban neighborhoods, power lines running along the foothills) to make life better for the majority. I understand not all lines in all places can be buried at a reasonable cost, but they're not even trying in areas that would make sense. I would rather have a rate increase, bury my surburban area power lines, and have my power be more reliable than building a Power Pathway.

  
  

  And all this at a time when they are gouging their customers with TOU pricing, Xcel's priorities are all wrong.
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  Invest in some technology!

  by John Hax, 5 months ago

  Communication is never going to be perfect. Communicate an outage too early and the weather forecast might change. However, we live in an area that is defined as a "high wind" area. So what is the criteria for an outage? 75 mph winds and high fire danger as defined by the NWS and then agreed to by Xcel lawyers? I get 75 mph winds at my house 6 times a year and it is dry every fall. What is the plan going forward to alleviate a 3-day outrage for 6 hours of wind? The NWS already has wind monitors up... Continue reading

  Communication is never going to be perfect. Communicate an outage too early and the weather forecast might change. However, we live in an area that is defined as a "high wind" area. So what is the criteria for an outage? 75 mph winds and high fire danger as defined by the NWS and then agreed to by Xcel lawyers? I get 75 mph winds at my house 6 times a year and it is dry every fall. What is the plan going forward to alleviate a 3-day outrage for 6 hours of wind? The NWS already has wind monitors up and down the front range. How about you talk to your people in the IT department about how to instrument, monitor and automate your line surveillance to negate the need for humans to visually inspect every line. NWS wind data is publicly available. This might sound earth shattering, but you could actually tie your control systems into real time wind data and automate your shutdowns. Although on the other hand I would have not been able to enjoy bike riding with my son in the otherwise beautiful weather Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon while he was out of school.(sc)
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  Shutoff not ended in reasonable time

  by TLT, 5 months ago

  There is no discussion that turning off power in these instances is a good idea. What is wrong with the system is that it is being used to an extreme. In north Loveland, we received a notice on Wednesday that it would be shut off, then not more than 30 minutes later a notice that "power has been restored". It had never been off and never was on Wednesday during a much higher wind event than Friday. Then received a note that power would go off Friday at 5am, which it did. However, the wind subsided here mid-day and Xcel... Continue reading

  There is no discussion that turning off power in these instances is a good idea. What is wrong with the system is that it is being used to an extreme. In north Loveland, we received a notice on Wednesday that it would be shut off, then not more than 30 minutes later a notice that "power has been restored". It had never been off and never was on Wednesday during a much higher wind event than Friday. Then received a note that power would go off Friday at 5am, which it did. However, the wind subsided here mid-day and Xcel made no effort to restore. Just sent a note at 9:30pm that they would start "in the morning". Hope everyone slept well at Xcel, because none of us did. Fortunately, it wasn't colder than it was or this would have been a catastrophe. There is no logic to why this Loveland area is in this setup and it was handled terribly. All people affected by this fiasco should be compensated.
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  Xcel needs to be held accountable

  by BelezaCoffeeBar, 5 months ago

  Let me start by saying this power shutdown cost my business about $20,000 in sales. We work very hard to ensure that our business runs well and something so brutal as a $20,000 loss is not foreseen in our business plan, anybody's business plan!

  While we all want to avoid wildfire and disaster, the way this particular situation was handled was completely unacceptable. The power to our business was shut down for over 56 hours straight, not including a few hours on Wednesday afternoon.

  We lost the ability to make any sales over the busiest weekend of our entire year... Continue reading

  Let me start by saying this power shutdown cost my business about $20,000 in sales. We work very hard to ensure that our business runs well and something so brutal as a $20,000 loss is not foreseen in our business plan, anybody's business plan!

  While we all want to avoid wildfire and disaster, the way this particular situation was handled was completely unacceptable. The power to our business was shut down for over 56 hours straight, not including a few hours on Wednesday afternoon.

  We lost the ability to make any sales over the busiest weekend of our entire year. We greatly depend on the weekend before Christmas for the business to maintain successful throughout the year.
  We lost the ability to pay our staff wages, we still have to pay rent, we lost a lot of cold food and dairy products. All of our competitors in the downtown area that had power received our clientele.
  The length of time it took to get us powered up again was blasphemous!

  The communication from Xcel telling us power was coming and then two hours after it was supposed to turn on, we get another notification that pushes it another 6, 12, 24 hours later. WTF?!

  The amount of stress, scrambling to save what we could from loss, and the staggering amount of time to get power again, leaving us at the mercy of the power company, telling us they will not reimburse for all the losses, is extremely painful to stomach in a business environment already running on razor thin margins.
  Since the Marshall fire, the power company has had four years to bury all their powerlines in Boulder and they have done none of it! $12 million salary to the CEO per year and where's the accountability for the power company? I feel like this person needs to address all of their customers, because if we did that to our clientele, charged them for products that we couldn't provide and didn't address the situation when things got dire, we wouldn't be able to continue in business.

  How are we supposed to recoup our losses? How are we supposed to trust Xcel? The imbalance of power is simply not fair. Who's holding Xcel accountable?
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  A dangerous solution

  by hollsch, 5 months ago
  We live in Evergreen and were without power AND water from Weds to Saturday night. We have livestock animals that very nearly ran out of water and finding water became increasingly difficult. The conditions in our home became unsanitary and dangerous, but we couldn’t leave due to the animals we’re responsible for. The total lack of community outreach from Xcel, a profit-rich organization, was shocking. They failed to coordinate with local authorities to deliver water to well users, create community shelters, or organize resources in any meaningful way. While none of us want our homes to burn down, a reasonable... Continue reading

  We live in Evergreen and were without power AND water from Weds to Saturday night. We have livestock animals that very nearly ran out of water and finding water became increasingly difficult. The conditions in our home became unsanitary and dangerous, but we couldn’t leave due to the animals we’re responsible for. The total lack of community outreach from Xcel, a profit-rich organization, was shocking. They failed to coordinate with local authorities to deliver water to well users, create community shelters, or organize resources in any meaningful way. While none of us want our homes to burn down, a reasonable solution surely exists somewhere in the middle of two extremes: negligence on one end and callous heavy handed treatment on the other. Xcel, please work to find a well designed and more thoughtful solution before the next time.
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  No communication leads to frustration

  by Cdes, 5 months ago
  We lost power from 10am Wednesday to midnight, then again from 6am Friday to 8:30am Saturday.

  We were well informed that the power was going to be shutoff, but there was absolutely zero information DURING the shutoff, which is when you want information the most. A lousy non updated website leads to another lousy website just telling you why they did what they did. Says to call for more info, but when you call you get the same runaround, and a pre-recorded message tells you to go to the website. Then, there was communication after the power came back on... Continue reading

  We lost power from 10am Wednesday to midnight, then again from 6am Friday to 8:30am Saturday.

  We were well informed that the power was going to be shutoff, but there was absolutely zero information DURING the shutoff, which is when you want information the most. A lousy non updated website leads to another lousy website just telling you why they did what they did. Says to call for more info, but when you call you get the same runaround, and a pre-recorded message tells you to go to the website. Then, there was communication after the power came back on, which was useless at that point. The only “timeline” I was EVER given said that we would be out of power until Monday. Luckily it didn’t last that long. I sat there and watched while food went bad in my fridge and my freezer was starting to thaw. With no idea when it would come back, we were preparing to store food at someone else’s house, who had a different provider (and NEVER lost power). Xcel is the very definition of an evil corporation. Shady, misleading tactics, while claiming there is nothing more they could do. People without power, food and life sustaining medical equipment for an unknown amount of time just to get make up for the fact that their grid is outdated and dangerous and they refuse to fix it. All while they ask for a rate increase and pay their execs millions in bonuses every year. Xcel would fight allowing an open market for power companies in Colorado, because they would for sure lose 99% of their customers. This is an unmitigated disaster at a time when money is already tight for everyone, and bills are only going up. I already can’t afford to go to the doctor because my health insurance premiums are so expensive.

  
  

  
  
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  Impact of Prolonged Power Outage on Remote Work and Household

  by Agrana, 5 months ago

  I work fully remotely, and access to reliable power and internet is essential to my ability to do my job and earn a living. I have a limited amount of paid time off, and with the holidays and my son’s school schedule, my husband and I had already planned our time off around the two week school break.

  Weather conditions may have been more severe in Boulder, but in our immediate area the conditions were not unusually severe. Our neighborhood has buried power lines. Despite this, we lost power while nearby neighborhoods remained fully operational.

  Because of the outage, I... Continue reading

  I work fully remotely, and access to reliable power and internet is essential to my ability to do my job and earn a living. I have a limited amount of paid time off, and with the holidays and my son’s school schedule, my husband and I had already planned our time off around the two week school break.

  Weather conditions may have been more severe in Boulder, but in our immediate area the conditions were not unusually severe. Our neighborhood has buried power lines. Despite this, we lost power while nearby neighborhoods remained fully operational.

  Because of the outage, I had to take two days of unscheduled time off from work. During that time, I moved my children from house to house to find electricity and internet access. My son missed three days of school immediately before a scheduled two week break.

  In addition to the loss of work time and school disruption, the extended outage caused the food in our refrigerator and freezer to spoil, resulting in further financial loss.

  The outage created significant disruption for our family and directly affected my ability to work and meet my professional responsibilities. I am sharing this to document the real and practical impact this outage had on our household.