Trouble at an Xcel Energy substation caused a power outage lasting about an hour that triggered a Federal Aviation Administration order to ground flights to on Wednesday morning, leading to darkness and disarray in DIA and delaying thousands of travelers.
The outage froze escalators and security screening conveyor belts and stalled the underground trains linking DIA’s main terminal to concourses. Travelers waited in lines, backed up on the train platforms, and at the Transportation Security Administration-run checkpoints.
“Critical airport systems remained without power for roughly an hour,” airport officials confirmed in an emailed response to questions.
Power was restored around 11 a.m. and, around noon, airport operations “were fully back to normal,” DIA officials said.
“The outage originated and was isolated to one Xcel substation. Xcel Energy is conducting a full system assessment to determine the root cause,” airport officials said.
Xcel Energy crews were powering up a new transformer at the substation, one of two serving DIA, and it lost power, utility spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said. The other substation wasn’t affected “and was able to partially serve the airport,” she said, confirming that Xcel is investigating what happened.
DIA officials who have been weighing whether to install a mini-power plant at the airport reasserted their interest in ensuring steady power in the future.
DIA “continues to explore alternative energy solutions via a request for information from the private sector so that we can ensure greater redundancy and meet our growing energy needs,” chief executive Phil Washington said in a statement.
officials grounded flights headed to DIA from 9:54 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., citing an equipment outage.
DIA officials notified travelers via a that the power outage began around 9:20 a.m. and that technicians were working as quickly as possible to solve the problem.
Travelers’ posts on social media described with trains and escalators stopped. One reported that passengers who had boarded a flight couldn’t leave because the jet bridge could not pull away from the plane.
Flights affected include those scheduled to DIA from Albuquerque, Chicago, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Houston, Oakland, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City, Seattle, Indianapolis, Memphis, and Minneapolis.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
