Public Safety Power Shutoff

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  How to make things better

  by EvergreenCustomer, 4 months ago

  I know a lot of people are upset at the PSPS and I understand. We were reasonably prepared with long term UPSs and a generator that provided essential services. The following is more about how to better handle the situation in the future.

  1. Xcel needs some monitoring stations. Relying on weather service predictions isn't appropriate for something this serious. The first shutoff came several hours sooner than it needed to, and the second one did not remove power Thursday night when the winds were strongest. Also a number of people reported loss of power in areas that didn't experience... Continue reading

  I know a lot of people are upset at the PSPS and I understand. We were reasonably prepared with long term UPSs and a generator that provided essential services. The following is more about how to better handle the situation in the future.

  1. Xcel needs some monitoring stations. Relying on weather service predictions isn't appropriate for something this serious. The first shutoff came several hours sooner than it needed to, and the second one did not remove power Thursday night when the winds were strongest. Also a number of people reported loss of power in areas that didn't experience winds high enough to justify it.

  2. Obviously like the other utilities that have caused fires and resorted to PSPS, Xcel should be investing in hardening their infrastructure. Most of the fires started by the various utilities in the last few years weren't because a tree fell on a power line. They were because infrastructure that hadn't been adequately maintained and failed. PSPS shouldn't be a way of limiting legal liability because of failure to maintain the infrastructure.

  3. The biggest downside of PSPS is once the lines are not energized, there is no way to know if they have been compromised. In many situations, setting the ground fault sensitivity high and no retry would be a better and less disruptive way to mitigate hazards. I believe that is what Core did.

  4. When it is necessary to deactivate lines, the utility should have a way to put a lower voltage, limited current signal on the lines. It could be common to all three phases, so no power is delivered, but it would register a ground fault if a line went down. This would take a bit of innovation and experimentation and would require installing some new equipment. Each segment (from a source transformer to a load transformer) would need to be monitored. But doing this would allow them to know the integrity of the lines. When it came time to restore power, they might want to do a continuity check of each phase against the other two (with the load transformer out of the circuit) as a second check of line integrity. While this would require some expenditure, putting all boots on the ground emergency crews wasn't cheap, either. More importantly, it would get power on within minutes when it was safe, rather than days.
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  Corporate disaster longer outage then the 2003 record snowstorm in Evergreen, CO

  by RMP, 4 months ago
  I wrote a much longer comment in the survey comments, but will just say here; My family and I have lived in our house in Evergreen for nearly 40 years. The 5 days of this corporate CYA power outage exceeded the number of days we were without power-heat and water during the 2003 snowstorm and we had to 'dig ourselves' out. My wife and I are over 70 now and because of major surgery in early December my compromised system could not take the cold and lack of water and heat so we stayed with friends for 3 nights. By... Continue reading

  I wrote a much longer comment in the survey comments, but will just say here; My family and I have lived in our house in Evergreen for nearly 40 years. The 5 days of this corporate CYA power outage exceeded the number of days we were without power-heat and water during the 2003 snowstorm and we had to 'dig ourselves' out. My wife and I are over 70 now and because of major surgery in early December my compromised system could not take the cold and lack of water and heat so we stayed with friends for 3 nights. By Xcel power going off and then on an unknown number of times Because of inaccurate outage information and checking our freeze when we returned, We were 'fooled into thinking our main freezer food was still frozen and ok to eat. I got incredibly sick after eating a salmon Christmas dinner and was vomiting for more than then 2 days and 3 other members of my family also got sick to lesser degree. I am now seriously considering moving out of Colorado to escape the corporate induced disaster plan of turning off home power-water and heat for extended periods every time the CLIMATE CHNAGE HIGHER Chinook winds blows 30 or 40 miles away from us in JeffCO or Boulder Co. AS WELL AS THE CALIFORNICATION OF COLORADO THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS NOW. It never exceeded 35mp on my weather station here and suffered no house damage or downed limbs or trees downed. Food poisoning caused by this outage has set back my surgery recovery by 2 weeks and ruined our Christmas and New Year holidays, as well as throwing out thousands of dollars of food. AFAIK from news reports wind never exceeded 61mph in Evereen and only 1 house burned in Conifer (which could have spread if not for fired dept action, due to a malfunctioning gas generator the owner used to restore their power. CYA & Corporate GREED now run Xcel Energy. PUC seems powerless/toothless and I predict will approve their 10% rate increase. Probably past time to leave the state I once dreamed of living in. I've about had it.
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  Christmas Tradition ruined

  by Cindy E, 4 months ago

  Every year our family goes up to Georgetown for the Georgetown loop Christmas train. We always stop at Beau Jo's pizza in Idaho Springs. We went up on Saturday Dec 20th around 4:30. Beau Jo's was shut down due to no power. Half of Idaho springs had no power. We had to call around Georgetown to see if any restaurants had power. Fortunately, power was coming back on to some of Georgetown. We found someplace to eat but had to wait quite a while for the kitchen to get fired up. It was terribly disappointing to us as a family... Continue reading

  Every year our family goes up to Georgetown for the Georgetown loop Christmas train. We always stop at Beau Jo's pizza in Idaho Springs. We went up on Saturday Dec 20th around 4:30. Beau Jo's was shut down due to no power. Half of Idaho springs had no power. We had to call around Georgetown to see if any restaurants had power. Fortunately, power was coming back on to some of Georgetown. We found someplace to eat but had to wait quite a while for the kitchen to get fired up. It was terribly disappointing to us as a family, and I can only imagine the amount of revenue Beau Jo's lost. I don't see how Public Service has the right to affect a business's livelihood. We are Colorado Natives, and I can tell you we have never seen anything like it because of wind. The weekend before Christmas when there are families coming into town, Christmas parties, lots of food being purchased for the holiday, how can Public Service be allowed to shut off power days at a time. It's terrible. I feel so bad for the people who had no power for days!
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  Microgrid

  by Kestutis, 4 months ago

  Xcel should be required to build microgrids in communities impacted. Not only would this provide backup during planned and unplanned outages but also support the use of renewables.

  Xcel should be required to build microgrids in communities impacted. Not only would this provide backup during planned and unplanned outages but also support the use of renewables.
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  PSPS 12/25 Gone Bad

  by GW, 4 months ago
  This power shut off in my opinion was absolutely unnecessary. Starting with the wind was no worse than most normal wind days in my neighborhood.

  I am low income and medical equipment dependent. I can't afford a generator. If I could I would resolve the problem of power shut offs.

  I have my equipment registered with xcel but it doesn't matter even though it says online to register that you need medical equipment and they won't shut your power off. Not!

  Xcel's refusal to reimburse for all of the lost food, and the cost to get a motel during the... Continue reading

  This power shut off in my opinion was absolutely unnecessary. Starting with the wind was no worse than most normal wind days in my neighborhood.

  I am low income and medical equipment dependent. I can't afford a generator. If I could I would resolve the problem of power shut offs.

  I have my equipment registered with xcel but it doesn't matter even though it says online to register that you need medical equipment and they won't shut your power off. Not!

  Xcel's refusal to reimburse for all of the lost food, and the cost to get a motel during the shut off it's not acceptable. They can give notice all they want but there is no way to save food for 4 days (6 days during the 2024 shut off). I was lucky that I had enough on my credit card to get a motel room so that I could use my medical equipment. However, I shouldn't have to use a credit card to survive during a power shut off.

  The perimeters used for shut-offs are not accurate. Again in my opinion. Let's add to this that billion dollar profit 4 years in a row should definitely cover upgrading the infrastructure in the shut-off zones. Lower bonuses to officers of the company and put it into burying overhead lines.

  I also believe that reimbursements should be allowed to low income and disabled. Not everyone can afford to go to the grocery store let alone replace all of your food. Not everyone can afford to get a motel room. xcel should make it so that all low income and all disabled persons are reimbursed!

  I could go on and on but I feel it's not going to matter. I'm concerned the PUC it's just going to do what xcel wants. They continue to allow price hikes that people can't afford so they'll just approve permanent shut-offs when absolutely unnecessary.

  Best of luck to all of us

  
  

  
  
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  “The Wind Advisory That Ate Four Days”

  by Crankepants, 4 months ago

  I live in a rural area, which means I know three things:

  1. How to spot real danger

  2. How to prepare for bad weather

  3. How to tell when something is wildly overblown

  This outage falls squarely into category #3.

  We were without power for over four days due to a concern about wind. Not sustained wind. Not ongoing hazardous conditions. Just the possibility of wind — which, in our specific area, showed up once for about 30 minutes and then moved along.

  Now, to be fair: we understand that parts of the grid did experience higher winds. That happens... Continue reading

  I live in a rural area, which means I know three things:

  1. How to spot real danger

  2. How to prepare for bad weather

  3. How to tell when something is wildly overblown

  This outage falls squarely into category #3.

  We were without power for over four days due to a concern about wind. Not sustained wind. Not ongoing hazardous conditions. Just the possibility of wind — which, in our specific area, showed up once for about 30 minutes and then moved along.

  Now, to be fair: we understand that parts of the grid did experience higher winds. That happens. Weather isn’t uniform, especially in rural terrain. We get that. No one is asking for reckless operation or heroics.

  But what is hard to understand is why the response was to shut down what felt like an area the size of Texas, instead of isolating the specific segments that were actually at risk.

  Rural residents are used to targeted solutions.
  If a fence goes down on the north pasture, you don’t shut down the entire ranch.
  If a tree threatens one line, you don’t turn off power to half a county just in case another tree gets ideas.

  Yet that’s exactly what happened.

  Out here, wind knocks over lawn chairs.
  It does not justify a four-day blackout across massive swaths of otherwise calm territory.

  Meanwhile, life didn’t pause:
  • Livestock still needed water
  • Homes still needed heat
  • Businesses still needed to operate
  • Medical equipment still needed power

  Preparedness is one thing.
  Precision is another.

  If the grid cannot distinguish between localized risk and widespread shutdown, then the issue isn’t wind — it’s system capability and decision-making.

  Rural doesn’t mean expendable.
  Caution doesn’t mean indiscriminate.
  And four days without power for a half-hour of wind deserves real explanation.
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  No idea what to do

  by BrownTown42, 4 months ago

  Single worst experience of my life. No Internet for 3 hours. Luckily I have gas appliances so my wife and I were able to make some chicken picatta. No capers though, so that definitely left me with some PTSD. It did get a little warm in the house because I couldn't turn on a fan to get airflow. Xcel needs to pay for every single inconvenience that was caused to me and my family. Couldn't even watch the Grinch while we ate that night. Unacceptable.

  Single worst experience of my life. No Internet for 3 hours. Luckily I have gas appliances so my wife and I were able to make some chicken picatta. No capers though, so that definitely left me with some PTSD. It did get a little warm in the house because I couldn't turn on a fan to get airflow. Xcel needs to pay for every single inconvenience that was caused to me and my family. Couldn't even watch the Grinch while we ate that night. Unacceptable.
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  Replace the Poles

  by bral4718, 4 months ago

  This is an absolutely unacceptable situation. I live in Leyden Rock and lost power twice for over 50 hours combined. I understand that this was necessary to prevent wildfires and I am not upset that it was done. Communication was also abysmal, but again is not why I am so upset. The reason I am upset is that I can see when driving along Highway 93 that our power lines are being held up my flimsy wooden poles that look to be decades old. Of course they are at risk of being blown down. They clearly weren't designed to withstand... Continue reading

  This is an absolutely unacceptable situation. I live in Leyden Rock and lost power twice for over 50 hours combined. I understand that this was necessary to prevent wildfires and I am not upset that it was done. Communication was also abysmal, but again is not why I am so upset. The reason I am upset is that I can see when driving along Highway 93 that our power lines are being held up my flimsy wooden poles that look to be decades old. Of course they are at risk of being blown down. They clearly weren't designed to withstand this level of wind when they were installed, and are even less capable of doing so after many years of use. This is a high wind area, and continuing to allow something as vital as the right to basic electricity be at the mercy of this very insufficient, very replaceable infrastructure is completely unacceptable. I also understand that burying power lines is very expensive and can cause issues when the lines need to be repaired. But Xcel must be required to replace or at the very least reinforce these aging wooden poles so that they can withstand the high winds that are common in this area. Shutting off power for thousands of people for days at a time in a major Denver suburb cannot be considered a viable solution. This is a fixable problem and Xcel must be made to fix it so that this doesn't happen again.
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  Unusual shutoff boundaries

  by Red, 4 months ago
  We had power shut off for over 30 hours during the second high wind warning in December, yet we felt that the first wind event was more severe and we never lost power. Most frustrating is seeing neighborhoods 1/2 mile away and closer to the foothills with higher fire risk never loose power? I would love to hear the explanation for that.

  We had power shut off for over 30 hours during the second high wind warning in December, yet we felt that the first wind event was more severe and we never lost power. Most frustrating is seeing neighborhoods 1/2 mile away and closer to the foothills with higher fire risk never loose power? I would love to hear the explanation for that.
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  Living with oxygen

  by Helen Stover, 4 months ago
  The information provided was power would go off at 11:00 a.m. and it went off about 9:30. I have worn oxygen for 15 years and cannot live without it. I was able to go to my sons and take my concentrator thanks to my son. It was very stressful for myself and my husband. Our neighbors stayed in their house and they were cold in the house during the night. I understand Excel was protecting our homes from fires and appreciate that. I hope Excel thinks about those of us who have special needs. Thank You.
  
  

  The information provided was power would go off at 11:00 a.m. and it went off about 9:30. I have worn oxygen for 15 years and cannot live without it. I was able to go to my sons and take my concentrator thanks to my son. It was very stressful for myself and my husband. Our neighbors stayed in their house and they were cold in the house during the night. I understand Excel was protecting our homes from fires and appreciate that. I hope Excel thinks about those of us who have special needs. Thank You.