Nearly two weeks ago, Xcel Energy executed its first public safety power shutdown in Colorado, cutting power to 55,000 customers — most of them in Boulder County — ahead of a severe wind storm.
But when Xcel representatives attended Boulder’s City Council meeting Thursday evening, council members still had a plethora of unanswered questions for the energy company. Many expressed frustration on behalf of the community, which is continuing to feel the impacts of the shutdown, and several asked how Xcel plans to make impacted community members whole in the wake of the power shutdown.
While Xcel admitted its communications around the shutdown could have been better and said it would work to improve its processes, company representatives stopped short of giving clear answers about how future planned power shutdowns will be handled.
Xcel Colorado President Robert Kennedy addressed the council, saying the risk of wildfires continues to grow, driven in part by worsening winds and drought and that the planned shutdown was done to mitigate that risk. He acknowledged the company could “improve and strengthen” its communications with communities, first responders and critical facilities when planned power shutdowns occur.
“We’ve heard that feedback loudly and clearly,” he said.
However, Kennedy added, “We do remain confident that we made the right decision to de-energize the lines. … Public safety is our job number one.”
Kennedy said that Xcel is donating $50,000 to the Community Food Share, a food bank serving Boulder and Broomfield counties that saw a spike in demand for food assistance after the outage, which left many households without power for days and caused some to lose hundreds of dollars worth of food.
But council members weren’t fully satisfied. Councilmember Tara Winer asked, “Did you really know that it would take two to three days for the power to go (back) on? And if you did, why didn’t we?”
Kennedy responded, “We knew that we were going to do this Saturday morning. That’s when we made the go-no go decision. … We did not know at that time how long it was going to take.” He added that crews needed to inspect more than 600 miles of power lines before power could safely be restored to all areas.
However, he acknowledged that Xcel has an “opportunity to have more accurate outage maps” in the future and also to “be more frequent in our communications.”
When Mayor Aaron Brockett expressed concern about the loss of power to both substations at the Water Resource Recovery Facility, where raw sewage nearly spilled into Boulder Creek, Kennedy suggested the city should consider having backup generators to power the facility in an emergency.
While Councilmember Taishya Adams thanked Xcel for the donation to the food bank, she asked what the company could do to better prepare the community in the future and how it would engage with community members as it formed a plan.
“We haven’t fully baked our plan,” Kennedy said.
Thursday’s meeting came a day after an hours-long public hearing held by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, where members of the public expressed complaints and criticisms aimed at Xcel over its handling of the planned power shutdown.
Kennedy remained after the council discussion ended and listened to the public comments. Several people shared stories that underscored how wide-ranging the impacts of the power outage have been.
Vulnerable community members, in particular, have been disproportionately affected by the outage.
Miriam De Santiago, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, introduced herself as an emergency response connector for Boulder. She lives in a mobile home community in north Boulder and said people in her community were not prepared for power to be out for 28 hours.
“We, the community, would like to know what the protocols will be going forward,” she said through the interpreter. “… And thank you for the money, but it isn’t enough to pay for the damages caused,” she said, adding that she lost $700 worth of food from her own refrigerator.
