Arapahoe County’s Office of Emergency Management presented a new public-safety power shutoff annex to the county Emergency Operations Plan that spells out how county agencies will prepare for, coordinate during and respond to planned electric outages driven by wildfire or other high-risk conditions.

Nate Fogg, the county’s emergency manager, said the annex was developed after recent PSPS operations in neighboring jurisdictions and after engagement with utilities and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. He described the typical PSPS timeline the county will use to prepare: utilities may identify concerning conditions days in advance, provide more specific outage-area information about 72 hours ahead, and then provide day-of updates. “Up to 3 days is when we will expect to be notified via Xcel,” Fogg said, and the county will use that lead time to compare anticipated outage areas to a growing critical-infrastructure database (hospitals, medical campuses, fuel needs for generators) to prioritize outreach and resource staging.

Fogg told the board the county is finalizing a nondisclosure agreement with Xcel to receive more detailed GIS outage planning data and is continuing working relationships with other providers the transcript calls “Core” and Black Hills. He said investor-owned utilities regulated by the Public Utilities Commission have publicly shared PSPS mitigation plans; some cooperative utilities have been less formal in their information sharing, so county staff rely on long-standing operational relationships for situational awareness. Commissioners asked questions about inclusion of specific medical campuses and the role of different utilities; staff said they have engaged with operators and will continue to formalize coordination.

The board gave staff an informal endorsement and agreed to place the annex on consent for adoption as an Emergency Operations Plan annex. Staff said they will continue completing the county critical-infrastructure database and work to formalize information-sharing and response procedures with utilities.