Update: On April 10, 2024, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission voted to investigate Xcel Energy’s preemptive wildfire safety power shutdown that affected 55,000 customers, a vast majority of them in Boulder County, amid the weekend’s extreme wind storm.
Gov. Jared Polis is calling on the state Public Utilities Commission to take action on what many are accusing was a poorly handled communication effort by Xcel Energy surrounding its preemptive power outage that began on Saturday, April 6.
In an April 9 letter to Xcel, Polis said he was calling on the Public Utilities Commission to “immediately open a formal docket to fully understand the failures of this past week, and to also consider adopting emergency rules that would put in place a higher bar and immediate outreach and notification requirements for planned outages as an interim solution until a long-term strategy is in place.”
The letter states he is also directing the PUC to “put in place guardrails” to ensure that planned outages are “when consistent with the public interest and when absolutely necessary,” among other measures.
The letter was prompted by a weekend incident where Xcel, for the first time in Colorado, implemented a preemptive power cut affecting 55,000 customers, mostly in Boulder County, to prevent a wildfire from a fallen live powerline. The unclear communication before and during the shutdown led to confusion, affecting critical facilities serving vulnerable populations, the City of Boulder and Boulder County, and businesses including restaurants and food banks. These entities had to quickly adapt with limited information, some incurring significant costs.
“During the days following the high winds event, I heard from many frustrated Coloradans who lost power for multiple days without clear indication from Xcel when it would be restored — from businesses that could not operate and lost perishable inventories and income, from hospitals that struggled to respond to vulnerable community members, and from schools that had to close all day Monday,” Polis wrote. “Once again, the company failed to minimize outages and effectively communicate with customers about an upcoming change that would impact people’s regular lives.”
Read Boulder Reporting Lab’s coverage of the incident:
- Xcel’s power cut may have prevented a wildfire. It also left critical Boulder facilities reeling from avoidable communication lapses.
- Why did your neighbor have power and you didn’t? Boulder’s grid complexity exacerbates confusion over Xcel Energy’s wildfire safety outages
- Boulder County power outages: Xcel Energy says residents may not see power restored until Monday or later
- Xcel Energy cuts power in Boulder County to combat wildfire risk amid forecast of dangerously high winds in unprecedented move
Read the full letter from Gov. Polis to Xcel Energy:
I am on supplemental oxygen for COPD, so it was necessary to make two trips to Foothills Hospital to charge my portable concentrator batteries. I have a home oxygen unit, not portable, so that was not a viable option
Xcel seems to want to us to believe we have only a choice between having power cut-offs whenever we have high winds or burning up in a wildfire. The third choice and the only realistic one in the long run is to require the electrical infrastructure to follow the sort of standards that we have for all other built structures in Colorado. It’s not that difficult or costly compared to the enormous and growing costs of electrical outages whether planned or unplanned. Where feasible conductors should be placed underground. The wooden asphalt coated poles that are in use now are 150-year-old “technology”. Reinforced concrete poles and steel are used routinely in many other places. These can we stand up to 150 mph winds. Conductors that can’t be placed underground should be strung along with high tensile cables. A 3/4-in stainless steel stranded cable can strung with conductors can withstand 20,000 lb of force, this could make conductors able to withstand even large trees falling on top of them. Replacement and upgrading vulnerable infrastructure should be an ongoing process beginning with the most vulnerable areas and with a set completion date. It’s may require public funding as well but it will be worth it considering The enormous economic cost of Xcel’s current policies.
John Uhr