Xcel Energy cuts power in Boulder County to combat wildfire risk amid forecast of dangerously high winds in unprecedented move

This is a developing story. According to Xcel outage maps, more than 40,000 people were without power in Boulder County as of Sunday morning. The company said that people may not have service restored until Monday or later, with a priority on fixing outages caused by downed lines for safety.

The last update was 7:20 p.m. on April 6, 2024.

In an unprecedented move to mitigate wildfire risks with expected winds up to 100 miles per hour, Xcel Energy is cutting power in Boulder County and surrounding areas from 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, to at least noon on Sunday, April 7.

This will impact approximately 55,000 customers, mainly in Boulder County, with smaller sections in Gilpin, Larimer, Douglas, Broomfield, and Jefferson Counties also affected, the company said.

“The bulk of them [the outages] will be in Boulder and the customers who are impacted have gotten outbound calls,” said Xcel Energy Colorado President Robert Kenney at a news conference.

The National Weather Service forecast wind gusts up to 100 mph in the Foothills and 65 mph on the plains. The most severe winds, expected between 6 p.m. on Saturday and 6 a.m. on Sunday, along with low humidity, could lead to critical fire weather conditions across the plains. Winds are expected to weaken by Sunday afternoon.

This marks the first time Xcel has preemptively cut off power in Colorado.

Despite many in Boulder receiving notifications about the outages, some reported experiencing abrupt shut-offs with little or no notice.

Boulder Reporting Lab received the following map from Xcel Energy around 7:20 p.m on Saturday of the approximate areas affected by the preemptive shutoffs. Xcel blurred the map to hide transmission infrastructure details for security reasons, it said. The company’s outage map also shows dozens of outages and more than 40,000 customers without power in the county.

While weather conditions seem ripe for a repeat of the Marshall Fire, which was caused and fed by hurricane-force winds on Dec. 30, 2021, Seth McKinney, fire management officer for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, said moisture levels are much higher than during the most catastrophic fire in Colorado’s history.

“The biggest message I would convey is that these are not the same conditions we saw leading up to the Marshall Fire,” McKinney said. “Yes, we have very high winds forecast, but our fuels are in a better state: no drought conditions, green-up is just starting. … High winds will of course be a concern if there is a start, but I think we are in a much better position today than before.”

Xcel advises preparing for an outage by charging devices and assembling a kit with essentials such as a battery-powered radio, flashlights, batteries, a manual charger, a non-electric phone, an analog alarm clock, water, non-perishable food, a manual can opener, a first aid kit and extension cords. People reliant on oxygen are advised to have enough spare bottles to last through Sunday or consider relocating outside the planned outage area if possible.

Foothills Hospital in Boulder was notified it would have its power preemptively turned off at 3 p.m. on April 6. The hospital has generators that will easily see it through until tomorrow afternoon, staff told Boulder Reporting Lab. 

“We have our outlying clinics bring over vaccines for storage, but that’s really the only change,” staff said, explaining that refrigeration powered by the generators would be utilized for other clinics associated with Boulder Community Health. 

AdventHealth Avista in Lafayette, previously Avista Adventist Hospital, told Boulder Reporting Lab at around 2 p.m. on April 6, that they don’t expect to be affected by the outages. Good Samaritan Medical Center, also in Lafayette, hadn’t received notification from Xcel about the outage impact. However, hospital staff said they have a backup generator ready to maintain power during the outage if necessary.

“We just had the cursory notices saying, ‘Hey, be prepared to get everything moved to the correct outlets to keep people safe and alive through the power outage,’” hospital staff told Boulder Reporting Lab.  

Xcel is also warning people about power outages because of the winds, which might affect far more customers. These outages, different from the planned shutdowns to prevent wildfires, could cover larger areas and take longer to fix because of damage.

“Typically, when there is an issue that causes a power outage on a line, such as a tree branch contacting a power line, equipment on the system will attempt to restore power automatically, usually within a few seconds,” Xcel said in a press release. “Xcel Energy is changing the settings on those systems in many areas to prevent the automatic restoration of power. Instead, crews will patrol the area to ensure it is safe to restore service. This safety measure means power outages are likely to last longer.”

Today’s decision follows a recent weekend of Red Flag Warnings during which Xcel took less-extreme precautions during strong winds and low humidity to prevent wildfires. It opted not to automatically reactivate power lines in the event of an outage, avoiding a power line falling into dry vegetation or creating sparks, thus reducing the risk of igniting a fire. It was the first widespread application of this safety protocol. Xcel is using this same protocol during this wind event, alongside preemptively cutting power to customers.

The power cutoffs come 26 months after the Marshall Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, which killed two people. An investigation last year by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and other government agencies claimed the fire was partially caused by an Xcel power line. Disconnected and moved by extreme winds on Dec. 30, 2021, the line generated sparks after touching other wires, investigators said. They said the sparks fell into the dry vegetation below and helped start the blaze. Xcel has vehemently denied this allegation.

More than 200 lawsuits have been filed against Xcel by insurers, homeowners and local governments alleging negligence by the utility. Among their arguments is that Xcel should have been prepared for the wind event that fueled the Marshall Fire, considering how long it has been operating in the Boulder area.

In a lawsuit filed on behalf of dozens of insurance companies, plaintiffs alleged that Xcel “did not de-energize its electrical equipment prior to the onset of the windstorm.”

Xcel has said that the recent changes in protocol are not related to the Marshall Fire or the lawsuits. The company has referred to its Wildfire Mitigation Program, which has received $450 million in funding since 2019 to “protect lives, homes, and Colorado’s forests from the threat of wildfire.”

An Xcel subsidiary operating in Texas is now also being sued by a fire victim for allegedly starting the Smokehouse Creek Fire on the Texas Panhandle, which killed at least two people and became the largest in Texas history at more than a million acres. The suit alleges a fallen Xcel utility pole started the wildfire. Xcel has said the cause of the fire is still unknown and is currently under investigation.