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Xcel Energy defends December safety shutoffs, outlines $1.9B mitigation plan and PUC rulemaking
Summary
Xcel Energy told lawmakers it acted on objective wildfire risk criteria during December public safety power shutoffs and described investments — including sectionalization, 50 miles of targeted undergrounding, pole inspections and AI cameras — that the PUC approved as part of a $1.9 billion wildfire mitigation plan. The PUC said it will begin rulemaking to set PSPS guardrails and timelines for accountability.
DENVER — Xcel Energy told a legislative committee on Feb. 5 that it acted to protect public safety when it deenergized lines during consecutive high‑wind events in December and said the company is accelerating investments intended to reduce the scope and duration of future public safety power shutoffs (PSPS).
"First, we're confident that we made the right operational decision for public safety by conducting the PSPS events that we did in December," Robert Kinney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, told the committee. Kinney said the company uses objective criteria — wind speed, relative humidity and ground fuel moisture — plus proprietary modeling that projects how an ignition would propagate under those conditions.
Kinney outlined work Xcel said it is executing under its PUC‑approved wildfire mitigation plan, which the company and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) described in testimony as a roughly $1.9 billion package of investments. Xcel reported it has inspected nearly 50,000 poles, repaired about 8,400 and replaced more than 10,000 poles; added about 80 artificial‑intelligence cameras and roughly 102 new weather stations; and identified 151 critical customers for enhanced outreach during events. The company also listed measures to reduce PSPS impacts: sectionalization devices that break the distribution system into smaller segments, targeted undergrounding (about 50 miles across six feeders, Xcel said, largely focused in and around Boulder), replacing bare conductor with covered conductor and larger‑diameter wire, plus use of drones and helicopters to speed damage assessments.
The PUC’s director, Rebecca White, told the committee the commission will use public comment from the recent events to craft rules for PSPS operations. White described the commission’s role as establishing ‘‘guardrails’’: expectations for coordination with local emergency managers, requirements for advance notice, and standards for priority restoration of critical assets and medically dependent customers. She said the commission plans a notice of proposed rulemaking in the second quarter with final rules targeted for year‑end.
On specific protections for medically vulnerable customers, Kinney said Xcel is accelerating a battery‑rebate program for income‑qualified customers who rely on durable medical equipment and that the company used interactive voice response calls, emails, text messages and Spanish translations in December to broaden outreach. He also said Xcel provides secure portal access to outage maps for local offices of emergency management so response partners can view outage footprints in real time.
Lawmakers pressed Xcel and the PUC on several recurring concerns: why customers in one neighborhood lost power while adjacent customers did not; how sectionalization maps and timelines will be shared; how decisions balance wildfire risk against the hardships created by multi‑day outages; and whether ratepayers should shoulder the cost of the mitigation investments. Xcel said sectionalization and other work are described in the company’s 2025–27 mitigation plan and that Xcel will file a follow‑up plan in 2027; the PUC said it will scrutinize costs in rate cases and use rulemaking to define notice and coordination requirements.
The PUC and Xcel both pointed to ongoing after‑action reviews with counties, local emergency managers, CDOT and the PUC. "We will continue to do those after action reviews," Kinney said. "We're listening and learning." Rebecca White said the commission has received around 4,000 public inputs since the first PSPS in April 2024 and that those comments will inform the proposed rules.
The hearing closed with committee members stressing the need for faster, clearer communications and for durable, geographically targeted solutions that reduce PSPS frequency while protecting vulnerable residents and businesses. The PUC and Xcel committed to provide more granular timelines and to brief the committee as investments progress.
