State regulators are considering new rules for utilities that proactively cut off power during extreme weather to reduce wildfire risks and they want to hear what the public thinks.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will hold an to take comments 4-6 p.m. Wednesday.
The PUC began asking for public feedback after Xcel Energy shut off electricity in December to more than 100,000 customers along the Front Range because winds were forecast to reach as high as 100 mph and the weather was abnormally dry.
People can fill out about the outages, called public safety power shutoffs. The link is https://bit.ly/4jW24Xi. for the public meeting by going to https://bit.ly/4kk3WcV.
Xcel first preemptively cut power in 2024 along the Front Range. Thousands of people lost power when the hurricane-strength winds roared through the area.
Then as during the latest shutoffs, people complained that Xcel didn’t keep the public updated, leaving them in the dark as to how long the electricity would be off. Restaurant owners told of tens of thousands of dollars in lost business and food. People said they couldn’t refrigerate medicine or turn on medical devices.
The PUC approved a series of requirements in 2024 for precautionary power shutdowns. In a December meeting, commissioners acknowledged customers’ frustrations, but added that the winds blew down hundreds of power lines onto the dry landscape.
Fierce winds 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.
In September, as Xcel and two telecommunications firms faced a trial in lawsuits with more than 4,000 people, the utility agreed to a $640 million settlement in connection with the fire.
Investigators said the fire started in two places: private property when embers from an earlier fire reignited and near part of Xcel’s electrical distribution system, where a power line became loose. Xcel disputes that its equipment started one of the blazes.
