Faced with a barrage of complaints, Xcel Energy used a legislative committee hearing Friday to explain and defend its decision to preemptively cut power in spots along the Front Range in December to minimize wildfire risks.
Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy-Colorado, told members of the legislature’s Joint Energy Committee that the utility rarely resorts to planned outages, known as public safety power shutoffs.
Power shutoffs Dec. 17 and 19 affected tens of thousands of Xcel customers from the Boulder area to metro Denver. Other people lost power when hurricane-strength winds damaged electrical equipment.
A combination of fierce winds, dry weather and dry vegetation that could easily be ignited by downed power lines or damaged equipment led Xcel to announce it would cut the electricity in certain areas.
“We’re confident we made the right operational decision for public safety by conducting (the shutoffs),” Kenney said.
As wildfire-prone regions continue to get drier and warmer, Kenney said utilities are increasingly using the strategy to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. The shutoffs are just one of the tools Xcel has to address wildfire threats, he added.
“It’s one that we use sparingly and judiciously when the most extreme weather conditions exist, as they did on Dec. 17 and 19,” Kenney said.
Xcel cut power to about 9,000 customers in mid-January when high winds battered northern Colorado.
Xcel’s wildfire mitigation plan for 2025-2027 calls for $1.9 billion in investments.
Lawmakers and members of the public who spoke during the legislative committee hearing said cutting power shouldn’t be the utility’s go-to response to extreme weather. They said the loss of power, which lasted days for some customers, resulted in financial losses for businesses heading into the holidays, for people whose food spoiled and potential harm for people without electricity for medical devices.
“Business lost critical revenue that weekend, the last weekend before Christmas,” said Democratic Rep. Tammy Story,who lives in Jefferson County. “I get that this pales to what you were trying to accomplish relative to wanting to mitigate wildfire risk. Nonetheless, the impacts were enormous.”
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission heard many of the same concerns during a public hearing Wednesday. The PUC is developing new rules for utilities that proactively cut off power during extreme weather and has scheduled another hearing for Monday.
PUC Director Rebecca White said the commissioners have approved $2 million for a program Xcel said it will start in February to offer rebates to income-qualified people for batteries they can use for medical machines when the electricity is off. She said the commission, which regulates Xcel and other investor-owned utilities, is working with the company on plans to section off parts of its system when extreme weather is forecast so it can more precisely target affected areas.
Xcel first preemptively cut power in April 2024 along the Front Range when hurricane-strength winds roared through the area. People and businesses reported losing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food. Local governments said critical public facilities were affected.
White and area emergency management officials said Xcel has made improvements since then and worked more closely with local governments during the latest shutoffs.
However, they and other speakers said the company needs to improve communications with agencies and the public. They said maps showing the outages weren’t updated and information about the shutoffs and the restoration of power was confusing and contradictory.
Some speakers questioned whether the planned outages are an attempt to avoid liability if Xcel is blamed for wildfires that erupt during wind storms. Kenney said the company’s wildfire prevention efforts aren’t aimed at fighting off lawsuits.
“Whether we did it or not, people are going to sue us,” Kenney said.
Winds of up to 100 mph and unusually dry conditions drove the Marshall fire Dec. 30, 2021, in Louisville, Superior and parts of unincorporated Boulder County. The fire killed two people, destroyed 1,084 homes and businesses and did more than $2 billion in property damage.
Investigators said the fire was caused in part by a blaze that ignited near part of Xcel’s electrical distribution system, where a power line became loose. Xcel, which faced hundreds of lawsuits in connection with the fire, agreed to a $640 million settlement in September.
Xcel has disputed that it was to blame for the fire.
The issue of Xcel reimbursing people and businesses for their losses during power shutoffs came up during the PUC and the legislative committee’s hearings. Kenney said that isn’t something utilities typically do. He said many people who lost power were not part of the planned shutoffs, raising questions about who should get compensation and who shouldn’t.
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