Xcel officials to discuss windstorm outages

Power outages triggered by the weekend’s windstorm could persist through Monday and beyond in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, Xcel Energy spokespeople say, as crews work to safely restore power lines.

The Boulder Chamber and the Downtown Boulder Partnership will host a virtual business community forum for their members beginning at 9:30 a.m. today, at which Xcel Energy Colorado officials will discuss the situation. Included will be Robert Kenney, Xcel’s Colorado division president, along with Holly Valesquez-Horvath, its regional vice president for state affairs and community relations. The Zoom meeting ID is 819 8909 6931 and the passcode is 244024.

Xcel cut power to more than 600 miles of lines on Saturday afternoon in Boulder, Broomfield and Larimer counties along with three adjoining counties, affecting around 55,000 customers. Winds over the weekend gusted as high as 97 miles per hour.

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“Turning off customers’ power is not something we take lightly, but intended to decrease the risk of wildfire,” Xcel said in a prepared statement early in the weekend. “If any proactive de-energization is necessary, we will attempt to contact affected customers directly.”

Xcel said it was the first time it had taken such an action in Colorado for public-safety reasons, and has posted an interactive map at www.outagemap-xcelenergy.com/outagemap to show where power remains off.

Especially affected were much of Boulder, parts of Louisville and Broomfield, northwest Fort Collins, Laporte, parts of Weld County, and areas west of Fort Collins and Loveland. 

Other private and municipal utilities reported scattered unintentional outages because of the winds, but worked throughout the weekend to restore service.