BOULDER, Colo. — When the power goes out, customers save money by not having to pay for electricity.
That is no consolation for customers who rely on power for medical equipment, or whose businesses rely on power, like restaurants.
“We've experienced a series of extended power outages. No heads up,” said Dakota Soifer, chef and owner of Cafe Aion. Soifer’s restaurant is on The Hill in Boulder.
At least twice last month, the restaurant went dark without notice.
“Recently, they've been lasting for three to five [or] even more hours,” Soifer said. “Additionally, they've been happening on Friday evening. Completely lost all of our business.
On one of the nights, his sous chef, Nate Bingaman, recorded himself using candlelight. That is usually for ambiance, but for Bingaman, it was so he could see to clean the kitchen.
“The impact to our community and neighborhood goes far beyond completely losing a day's revenue. For a small business like us, that's, you know, our rent,” Soifer said.
Xcel has a claims process to submit for potential reimbursement. The criteria though, requires Xcel to be negligent. The form also suggests that it is only for losses that are not covered by insurance.
“Unfortunately, ours does not and I'm not aware of really any insurance that is going to cover a loss for hours versus weeks. We weren't shut down for weeks, but it leaves us in a really tough spot,” Soifer said. “Ultimately, a small business just has no recourse against a corporation like Xcel.”
Soifer has already been denied in one of his two August claims.
He shared an email conversation with an Xcel claims investigator. One of the investigator’s replies included the following:
“Any time there is high winds and heat, the system goes into wildfire safety settings to not start any fires should a power line get blown off a pole. I know that can be very frustrating, but it is necessary to prevent widespread damages.”
“It had been raining the day before, like clearly the atmospheric and climate conditions that Xcel uses to excuse this were not present,” Soifer said. “The solution is not just to leave the system on heightened alert when the conditions don't dictate that, when it's raining and it's not windy and it's not 103 degrees. There’s no reason for it.”
He submitted not just for losses to his business, but his employees, too.
“I believe it was $7,000 or $8,000 for loss of sales, plus employees lost out, loss of wages,” Soifer said. “Not millions, but it's very meaningful to a small business.”
Early on Thursday afternoon, 9NEWS asked Xcel for any statistics it had on success/denial rates for claims in 2024, and perhaps even in 2023. The data request also asked for how often Xcel finds itself negligent versus a reason not covered through the claims process. An Xcel spokesman said he was unable to gather information on those questions by our Thursday evening deadline.
This story will be updated once Xcel provides that information.