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Update 7/24/2024
As a result of the follow up actions to the initial power shutoff in April, the PUC requested that Xcel submit to the Commission a description of what immediate improvements they will make to customer communication, preparedness and coordination with emergency responders. The PUC has received this information from Xcel which can be found here. We are seeking public input by August 13, 2024. We welcome your feedback.
Summary
Over the weekend of April 6-7, Colorado experienced a weather event that brought wind gusts in excess of 100 mph in some areas of the state and sustained high winds throughout the weekend. The outages and weather impacts were concentrated in the northern front range. Over 150,000 people across 9 counties were without power statewide during the event. 55,000 of these were the result of an intentional, precautionary outage conducted by Xcel to reduce the possibility of wildfire. The remaining outages were either due to damage to lines or use of another preventative measures..
While power outages are a frequent impact of Colorado weather events, the April storm was the first time that Xcel pro-actively deployed preventative safety outages. In addition, a significant portion of the distribution system that would normally be set to attempt to automatically re-energize was not re-powered until visual inspection by utility crews. This precautionary measure meant a longer down period than usual as field crews had to manually inspect lines that had been de-energized. These measures are used in other western states including California and Oregon.
Please share your input and personal experience so the PUC can determine whether new regulatory approaches are necessary for precautionary outages.
Update 7/24/2024
As a result of the follow up actions to the initial power shutoff in April, the PUC requested that Xcel submit to the Commission a description of what immediate improvements they will make to customer communication, preparedness and coordination with emergency responders. The PUC has received this information from Xcel which can be found here. We are seeking public input by August 13, 2024. We welcome your feedback.
Summary
Over the weekend of April 6-7, Colorado experienced a weather event that brought wind gusts in excess of 100 mph in some areas of the state and sustained high winds throughout the weekend. The outages and weather impacts were concentrated in the northern front range. Over 150,000 people across 9 counties were without power statewide during the event. 55,000 of these were the result of an intentional, precautionary outage conducted by Xcel to reduce the possibility of wildfire. The remaining outages were either due to damage to lines or use of another preventative measures..
While power outages are a frequent impact of Colorado weather events, the April storm was the first time that Xcel pro-actively deployed preventative safety outages. In addition, a significant portion of the distribution system that would normally be set to attempt to automatically re-energize was not re-powered until visual inspection by utility crews. This precautionary measure meant a longer down period than usual as field crews had to manually inspect lines that had been de-energized. These measures are used in other western states including California and Oregon.
Please share your input and personal experience so the PUC can determine whether new regulatory approaches are necessary for precautionary outages.
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A good way to improve communications about an intentional power outage would be to communicate with all those effected. I received no phone call, text, email, carrier pigeon, etc. from Xcel letting me know the power was going down. I was about to get my hair cut when the stylist told me Xcel was cutting power around 3, luckily the power went out before they started shaving my head. While I do not know for sure, I expect Xcel knew there was a high potential they were going to shut down power days before they did. For them to not... Continue reading
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Due to the strong winds Saturday night our neighbor in back had their tree hit a power line-- It sparked and started on fire, the fire then jumped to our tree then another tree -- Winds are howling and due to the storm there are no fire crews available. Xcel was called and turned off the power and after an hour we had the fires out. My home and neighborhood would have burned down- Thank You Xcel for turning off the power which allowed us to fight the fire. My only suggestion is that power is turned off perhaps at... Continue reading
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We live in a neighborhood with lots of old trees. Our power seems to go out ALL the time. This past weekend it was out for over 2 days, and our son’s school was closed for 2 full days (mon-Tues) due to the outage. That’s insane. Excel makes a ton of money and doesn’t invest in their incredibly old infrastructure. They need to better upkeep the area they serve or better yet bury the lines where outages are frequent due to downed trees. We had to throw away all of our food and spend $400 restocking the fridge. It’s costly... Continue reading
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It's very disturbing that xcel has not only this much say and power over us, yet had ZERO concern over our loss of power. I am 9 months into recovering from spine surgery, plus I suffer from two auto immune diseases. I just recently have gone back to work part time and live on a very limited income. I not only lost ALL that was in refrigerator and freezer, but because it was 58 degrees in my apartment, I had to borrow money to stay in a hotel for one night, sleep in a warm bed, take a hot shower... Continue reading
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I filled out the survey, but wanted to add more of my experience.
First off, we received no notification until the power had already been turned off. That was totally unacceptable. And then it was by cell gone when I had 14% power left on my cell, and my car was low on gas, so charging it was difficult and worrisome.
Everything is on electric nowadays, even our hot water and our stove. Power went out at 2:45pm, and when we went out to get ice for our cooler and candles, everywhere was closed (grocery stores and gas stations)... Continue reading
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I had no warning of the power outage. I can’t register with Xcel because Boulder County is the account holder on my apartment building. Xcel states you have to have an account to use their outage map and to register for updates/warnings. The Boulder County Housing Authority would be who was notified, then if they were a responsible landlord, they would warn their tenants. When they were called by tenants, an email response was sent out by Amanda Guthrie, stating they knew about the outage and “don’t call them”.
I found out about the outage when a traffic light wasn’t... Continue reading
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My partner had a cardiac event earlier in the week. A technician came to our house on Sat to fit him with a defibrillator vest. We were never notified of the power outage and the power went out at 3:00. The defibrillator vest was unable to relay real time cardiac information because of no internet. We went to the library on Sun to use the internet and to charge the vests batteries. My partner uses oxygen at night and was unable to because of outage. The power came on Sun afternoon- our refrigerator did not. Columbine Appliance came out on... Continue reading
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If proactive shut offs become a regular occurrence (not that that would be in any way justifiable but still...), I hope schools will be exempted from the shut offs (and of course hospitals). This time the shut off was during a weekend and only a few schools had to remain closed on Monday - which was bad enough. If something like this happens during the week it would be highly advantageous to have schools open so kids have a warm place to go with a warm meal. I hope this will be a priority in the PUC's considerations. Thank you... Continue reading
Share This is not a communication issue, this is a greed issue on FacebookShare This is not a communication issue, this is a greed issue on TwitterShare This is not a communication issue, this is a greed issue on LinkedinEmail This is not a communication issue, this is a greed issue link
This is not solely a notification or communication issue. There should not be precautionary shut downs, and there should be less risk of damage in big windstorms. Xcel should have started working years ago to improve the resilience of their power lines. They need to greatly reinforce power lines in critical spots, bury lines when needed/possible, and take whatever other steps experts recommend to make power more reliable in our increasingly stormy world.
For a company to just throw its hands up and claim it can do nothing besides stop delivering the power that it's paid to deliver is a... Continue reading
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Firstly, more advance notice would have been helpful. This would have enabled my wife and I to get more prepared with supplies and safely getting our food out of the fridge and prepare for getting our elderly cats their medicine, it also would have been helpful for our roommate who has an autistic daughter who uses oxygen to be able to prepare in advance for an alternative -thankfully, she wasn't staying over that night! Our neighbors had no water because their well has an electric pump. They were forced to get water from our faucet in order to flush their... Continue reading
