Xcel Energy likely could have prevented a major Feb. 18 power outage if the company had responded more quickly and effectively to developing problems that day, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission said in a report released Friday.
The rolling blackout, which occurred on the coldest day of winter, left 371,370 Colorado customers without electricity and almost all of them without heat. While most lost power for 30 minutes, about 20,500 customers were left without electricity for periods ranging from one to six hours.
“This is plainly unacceptable,” said PUC chairman Greg Sopkin. “On a day in which the temperature dropped to minus 13 degrees, it is a basic necessity for people to be able to run their forced air furnaces or hot water pumps.”
Xcel took issue with the report’s conclusion that the outage could have been prevented.
“Based on what we knew at the time, we feel that we acted appropriately,” said Xcel spokesman Tom Henley. “That being said, we take it very seriously – both with the staff of the PUC and with our customers.”
The 128-page report issued by PUC staff was critical of Xcel for not only failing to take steps to prevent the outage, but also for ineffectively communicating with customers about the magnitude of the problem.
About 240,000 phone calls to Xcel on Feb. 18 were greeted with busy signals, and the few callers who got through often were given inaccurate or incomplete information.
The report recounted the series of events that led to the rolling outages, and concluded with a series of recommendations that Xcel should implement to prevent a repeat of the outage.
Among the recommendations, the PUC said that Xcel must:
- Improve customer communications.
- Develop better mechanisms to purchase natural gas and other utilities’ power when demand is expected to be high.
- Identify who in the company has executive-level accountability to implement improvements and manage emergencies.
- Develop a corporate response team to coordinate operations and communications during emergencies.
