DENVER — When left in the dark, it can feel a bit powerless. Literally and figuratively. Do not underestimate the power of complaining.
Xcel customers have complained to 9NEWS and to state regulators, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), about sporadic power outages.
On Wednesday morning, the PUC started a new investigation.
“All the games, lights and point-of-sale machines operate on electricity, of course,” Caitlyn Braun said.
Braun is a member of the Lincoln/Broadway Corridor Registered Neighborhood Organization and works at Players Pub on Broadway.
“We have arcade games, show sports, a lot of people gather there from the neighborhood,” Braun said.
The pub is located within a four-block area that has dealt with unplanned power outages.
“You look across the street when you’re shutting down because you have no lights, they’re on. Business as usual," Braun said. "Everything’s fine on that west side of Broadway, and this four blocks on the east side of Broadway is just like, dark again,”
“I get calls from the neighbors across the street that say, ‘Hey, I see your power is out again, can we do anything for you?’” Blake Davis said.
Davis is the HOA president at Bell Tower Lofts at Second Avenue and Lincoln Street and is also on the board of the Lincoln/Broadway Corridor neighborhood group.
“Last year, I think we had about six outages," Davis said. "This year we’ve had 13 outages so far.”
Complaints from him and others led to the PUC agenda item on Wednesday morning.
“We're here this morning to discuss the possibility of the commission opening an investigation into recent electrical outages on the Public Service Company of Colorado system,” Erin O’Neill, PUC’s Deputy Director, said.
Xcel Energy is known as a Public Service Company of Colorado in PUC proceedings.
The commission agreed to open an investigation following hundreds of complaints of unplanned outages.
“According to the PUC’s Consumer Affairs staff, there have been approximately 250 repair complaints filed just this summer since May 1 of 2024,” O’Neill said. “Some examples of these extend from the Sterling Ranch area in Littleton to Grand Junction and Palisade. From Boulder down to Central Denver along Broadway and out into Platteville.”
Sterling Ranch residents held a community meeting last month after dozens of outages.
The CEO of the Downtown Boulder Partnership submitted a complaint about multiple power outages in the Hill District in August.
“What we would like is for them to upgrade the infrastructure,” Davis said. “If they’ve got other neighborhoods that have been out more than 13 times this year, then go take care of them first.”
In an emailed statement, Xcel acknowledged 10 outages this year for the Lincoln/Broadway corridor.
“Lincoln/Broadway Corridor - There have been 10 sustained outages since the beginning of the year," an Xcel spokesperson said. "Of those 10, four were caused by animal contact, three were caused by equipment failure, and one was weather-related. We also had a 28-minute outage for planned construction in the area. A cause was not found for the most recent outage, but crews did replace fuses in the area to help alleviate any further equipment-caused outages.”
Regarding Sterling Ranch, Xcel referenced 46 outages from a variety of causes.
“Sterling Ranch – There have been 46 outages affecting more than 10 customers with durations between two minutes and six hours (does not include the Public Safety Power Shutoff on April 6). Outage causes were found to be line damaged by construction, cable failure, conductor contact, conductor stress, de-energization for maintenance, an overloaded transformer and those with an unknown cause,” an Xcel spokesperson said. “These outages are attributed to load growth as this area experiences rapid new development. At a community meeting two weeks ago, we presented several solutions to resolve many of these outages, like completion of the new Waterton substation in October 2024, repairing and replacing aged equipment and adding communications systems to help crews identify and resolve outage causes faster.”
Here are the other areas impacted by recent unplanned power outages and the reasons given by Xcel.
- Applewood Business Area – Since the start of the year, extended outage causes include two weather events, equipment failure (blown fuse) and an outage taken for crew safety to repair the system.
- Denver/Happy Canyon/University Hills – Momentary outages were caused by a capacity issue due to a cable fault, which was replaced, and outages are resolved.
- Louisville – Crews inspected the lines and did not find a cause.
“I’ve also talked to some linemen, and they do God’s work out there," Davis said. "Just respect the heck out of them.”
Xcel has a claim form that customers can fill out if they want to try to seek compensation from the energy company because of an unplanned outage.
Though, the form states that the company is responsible for certain damages if caused by Xcel’s negligence.
“We are not responsible, however, for injuries or losses caused by circumstances beyond our control, such as equipment failure or acts of nature (floods, fires or weather-related incidents).”
“It seems as if you need itemized receipts, you need to prove the losses and all this stuff," Braun said. "Businesses buy in bulk. They don’t have itemized receipts for three pounds of meat and here and there. It’s pretty easy to look up a day’s sales though, and say, ‘Hey, last year or the year before, we made $1,000 on this day, can you pay us back $1,000.’”