Officials from Boulder, Jefferson and Larimer counties met on Wednesday with executives from Xcel Energy, seeking answers to concerns constituents raised about extended power outages in the wake of last weekend’s wind storm.
On Saturday, the power company made the decision to preemptively shut down power to 55,000 customers, primarily in Boulder County, before wind gusts of up to 70 to 100 mph were forecast to arrive in some parts of the county. As a result, some residents say they’ve remained without power for days.
The fallout from the planned power shutdown has been multifaceted. Food in refrigerators has spoiled, which has not only contributed to local businesses losing tens of thousands of dollars, but has also disproportionately harmed low-income households, local officials say. According to the Denver Post, power was shut down at two substations at the wastewater treatment plant in northeast Boulder, which could have impacted the drinking water supply for locations downstream. There were also several small fires throughout the county and several crashes along the Diagonal Highway, where some of the traffic signals weren’t working.
The Denver Post also reported the state Public Utilities Commission has started an investigation into Xcel’s decision to shut down power over the weekend.
Several local officials were at Wednesday’s meeting, with Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Nicole Speer, state Sen. Steve Fenberg, and state Reps. Junie Joseph, Judy Amabile and Kyle Brown all in attendance at various points in the conversation.
While the leaders generally said they didn’t fault Xcel for deciding to do a proactive power shutdown, they questioned why there didn’t appear to be a more clear plan in place or better communication with cities, counties and community members. Many constituents told them they either weren’t warned (or were warned too late) about the impending planned power outage, and there was no clear communication about which areas would be affected or for how long.
Amabile directly questioned Xcel executives on when they decided to roll out the power shutdown policy in Colorado. “Was that four days ago? Or was that always the plan, or has (it) been the plan for a while?” she asked.
Xcel Colorado President Robert Kenney said the company had been “examining it as a potential tool” for some time, but the company had never had reason or occasion to use it. He said the decision was made partly based on the way wildfire risk has “continued to dynamically and rapidly evolve and change” in Colorado.
According to Kenney, Xcel opted for the planned power shutdown because of a combination of risk factors that seemed to indicate a heightened fire danger.
“When you see high wind speeds coupled with low humidity, coupled with dry fuels and biofuels — grass, leaves, vegetation on the ground — all of those together are what drive our decision-making,” Kenney said.
Other Xcel representatives pointed out that there were around 250,000 customers impacted by power outages from the wind storm. In addition to the 55,000 customers affected by the planned shutdown, there were nearly 200,000 other customers who unexpectedly lost power due to the storm, the company said.
In the wake of the storm, Xcel employees have inspected hundreds of miles of power lines for wind damage before power could be safely restored, they said. There are plans to improve infrastructure and make it more resilient in the future, but executives acknowledged that those plans will cost money and that will come out of customers’ pockets.
Multiple times throughout the meeting, Kenney said the company would work on its communications for future events, though he reiterated that he believed the company did do some communication.
“Our communications were imperfect,” he said.
Xcel executives said at the meeting they are open to coming to community events and to discuss these matters with residents. Speer said at the meeting she also wants to see Xcel take steps to compensate people who bore the brunt of the impact in the Boulder community.
“We’re the guinea pigs in this learning process,” Speer said. “If there is any way to get a credit for the folks who are already getting energy assistance, Xcel could go a long way toward restoring some goodwill, because it shows a real recognition of what the impact was.”
Wednesday’s meeting came in response to a letter state Rep. Joseph had sent to Xcel on Monday expressing her disappointment and concern with Xcel’s handling of the wind storm. Joseph wrote she had received more than 100 complaints from constituents, some of which she attached to her letter.
After Joseph sent the letter, she said she was contacted by Michael Sapp, state government affairs manager for Xcel, with an offer to come to the Capitol and speak directly with other elected leaders.
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Joseph told the Daily Camera she felt the meeting was a “first step” but that she’d like to see the energy company do more to make the Boulder community whole given the devastating impacts some people experienced.
“I believe Xcel needs to do more,” Joseph said. “It cannot just be a learning opportunity for them. There (is) a restoration that has to be done, because Xcel learning is not helping my community. Xcel learning is not relieving the suffering that people have experienced due to what happened. So the outage, although it was … done with the right intent, it was wrongly applied.”
However, both Joseph and Speer said they came out of the meeting feeling hopeful that Xcel would be open to future conversations and to engaging directly with the community.
“I think it’s rare to emerge from a meeting like that feeling like I have been heard and like I have had a chance to speak to, or heard others speak to, so many of the concerns that I’ve heard from our community, and that I experienced myself,” Speer said. “I feel like we will continue to have conversations with them. That was not just a one and done situation.”
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