Inexcusable outage management and communications

Management and communications of the precautionary shutdown was inexcusable, especially considering that Hollie Velasquez Horvath, regional vice president of Xcel Energy, told Denver7 the company used an intense scientific analysis before deciding to shut off power to certain areas. With this scientific analysis, there should have been a well vetted plan. Based on our experience and also validation from a number of impacted residents, a plan was not apparent. For instance, we received notification a few hours before the shutdown. If there was a scientific analysis, then this should have been at least 24 hours notification considering trend/model data. Additionally, the management of the outage is highly questionable because pockets of neighborhoods were shut down while others never lost power thus representing inconsistent shutdowns. Where's the data to substantiate this erratic pattern? Furthermore, the website lacked data that should have informed residents of status. I checked numerous times and was surprised to see that the website showed we did not have an outage, despite not having power for 3 days. And when I did report the outage and checked back several hours later, still no outage was acknowledged. Additionally the two notifications we did receive were generic, no specific details about status or estimated time for power. This informs me that there was a disconnect between Xcel's management and data and the actual execution of the outage. I would expect more from regional energy company like Xcel considering the history, tools, data, and communication options that can be made available and executed if properly managed. These decisions come from the top down. The impact is widespread and costly, and from what I have learned in news-based updates, there's no intention for Xcel to reimburse. This is the type of behavior that makes a community-wide impact reducing customer loyalty and breaking trust. Fortunately Governor Polis issued a formal investigation. Thankfully there is leadership in Colorado to do the right thing!