He sent a public letter to Xcel Energy Colorado President Robert Kenney on April 9, criticizing the utility for its decision-making and lack of clarity with customers since shutting off electricity for tens of thousands on Saturday, April 6. Polis also directed the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which regulates Xcel in the state, to investigate what happened and to require a better plan in the future.
“Customers deserve transparency, real-time information, and accountability if these events occur,” Polis wrote to Kenney. “While I applaud your staff and front line crews for restoring power in a challenging situation where major infrastructure damage did in fact occur, this incident has further harmed Xcel’s reputation and social license.”
The governor called on the PUC to take immediate, emergency regulatory action to investigate how Xcel fell short and to consider adopting emergency rules for future public-safety power shutoffs.
On April 6 and 7, more than 155,000 homes and businesses experienced power outages, with around 800 customers still without power as of April 10. Xcel turned off power for 55,000 customers on April 6 as a public-safety measure in the face of extreme wind predictions, while 100,000 others experienced sustained power outages during the storm. The utility provider says another 84,000 customers had momentary outages, as well.
As of April 9, around 95 percent of people had their power restored, and the utility’s outage landing page says everyone should have power back by the end of today, April 10.
This is the first time that Xcel has performed a public-safety shutoff in Colorado. According to the company, it de-energized 600 miles of lines as a wildfire prevention measure.
In the past three years, Xcel has been sued over 300 times by people who allege its infrastructure caused the Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County; on that day in 2021, winds were 60-plus miles per hour. An investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office found that Xcel equipment may have sparked a secondary blaze after an initial ignition by a religious group.
Residents and business owners in Boulder and Jefferson counties, where the majority of the recent blackouts occurred, understood the wildfire prevention effort but were frustrated by lack of notification and clarity on who would have their power preemptively turned off. Xcel says it did not initially provide a map of customers who would be impacted in order to protect transmission equipment security.
“I heard from many frustrated Coloradans who lost power for multiple days without clear indication from Xcel when it would be restored,” Polis wrote. “Once again, the company failed to minimize outages and effectively communicate with customers about an upcoming change that would impact people’s regular lives.”
Hospitals and schools were among those that lost power, the governor added, with restaurants and food banks losing food to spoilage, as well. Additionally, he noted, there have been seventeen other times since 1969 when wind gusts reached over 96 miles per hour in April.
“Yet, none of these wind events tracked since 1969 have resulted in a planned outage like we saw this week,” Polis wrote. “We understand that lines will be damaged and some people will lose power, but this particular storm should not have resulted in as many people losing power for such a long period of time.”
Polis Expects Xcel to Learn Some Lessons
The governor acknowledged that drought and climate change have made the state drier and more vulnerable to wildfires, so it’s important that Xcel learns how to be proactive from this event. Polis informed Kenney that he expects that to show in the utility’s upcoming Wildfire Mitigation Plan updates, which will submitted to the PUC later this year.In addition to opening an immediate investigation, Polis instructed the PUC to put specific guardrails in place concerning public-safety power shutoffs, to ensure that cost considerations for electricity loss are taken into account and such shutoffs are only done when absolutely necessary to help the public.
In a response to Polis, Xcel maintains that that is what the company did this time around.
“Protecting the safety of our customers and communities is our top priority, and we utilize the public safety power shutoff only as a last resort,” Xcel says in a statement. “We stand by our decision to protect the public from wildfire risk in this recent weather event, and we firmly believe our actions contributed to preventing a wildfire this weekend. “
Polis also told the PUC to require better communication with customers for future preventative shutoffs, including expected restoration timelines and clearer information about where and when shutoffs will occur, particularly for emergency and health-care systems. He also specifically called out Xcel’s outage mapping.
“Our expectation is the PUC will ensure Xcel Energy has updated mapping that is meaningful and actionable for customers during PSPS as well as all outages,” he wrote.
Xcel says it recognizes the challenges of lacking power for an extended amount of time, and appreciates the patience customers exhibited over these shutoffs, both planned and unplanned.
“We acknowledge that there are ways to improve in the way we executed this public safety power shutoff, and we look forward to our continued dialogue with stakeholders, which has already started,” Xcel continues. “We are committed to making changes and improvements as we work together as a state to respond to rapidly evolving weather events.”
This Isn't Xcel's First Time Dealing With an Angry Public
People regularly request that the PUC scrutinize Xcel more in rate cases and hearings over its remaining coal plants in Colorado. Last winter, Colorado energy bills skyrocketed because of spiking natural gas prices, galvanizing even more people to pay attention to how the utility works.Polis chimed in then, too, asking the PUC to ensure that Xcel and other utilities were investing in renewable energy, which is less subject to market fluctuations. Polis also told the PUC to be sure that Coloradans were aware of energy assistance programs.
Eventually, the state legislature passed a bill that required plans to mitigate gas price spikes in the future and banned cost recovery fees that utilities could charge customers to pay for certain executive bonuses and lobbying efforts.
Polis's office isn't the only government body getting involved. Boulder County’s Office of Disaster Management has also reprimanded Xcel for inadequate notice and a lack of details needed for emergency response.
Customers could get bill credits for the event, according to Xcel’s electric tariff document, which explains how it provides and charges for electricity in Colorado.
Bill credits are applied the following July billing cycle of a performance year, so if people impacted by this event get credits, they won’t see them until July 2025 unless the PUC investigation leads to new credits. If there are more than 6.5 complaints per 1,000 customers through the PUC’s External Affairs Section’s Consumer Complaint System, that would cause a bill credit.
The PUC has set up a specific web page and survey for last weekend's wind storm, encouraging people to share their experiences.
Additionally, customers who experience electric interruptions for over 24 hours are supposed to be given a $50 bill credit. Sustained interruptions last over five minutes, according to the tariff, and customers can get a bill credit if they experience more than five sustained interruptions in a year.
However, Xcel can request that certain outages be excluded, and last weekend's wind may fit within the request parameters.
“Such events include, but are not limited to, periods of emergency, catastrophe, natural disaster, catastrophic storm, civil unrest, or other events affecting large numbers of Customers,” the tariff says. “Such events should include only those extraordinary events that result in an unusually high number of complaints.”
Still, planned interruptions aren’t meant to last more than 24 hours, and Xcel is required to give each customer involved at least 24 hours advance notice in the form of written notification by mail, telephone contact including text message, emails or door tags — which did not happen for many residents and businesses owners who lost power.
