COLORADO, USA — These aren't the final numbers from Xcel Energy, but the company has crunched some numbers of the damage Xcel crews were dispatched to repair or responsible for fixing.
As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, Xcel said crews had replaced or repaired:
- 107 poles
- 327 cross arms
- 34 transformers
- 67,000 feet, or 12.6 miles, of wire/cables
"The wind event caused surrounding vegetation to damage our equipment, breaking over 100 poles, including over 30 poles with transformers, which needed to be replaced and no longer safe for reliable service," said Tyler Bryant, Xcel media relations. "The crews also replaced over 325 cross arms and 67,000 feet of wire."
Xcel said crews did most of the repairs in the south metro area. The utility company said the wind event caused surrounding vegetation to damage Xcel equipment that needed to be replaced and was no longer safe for reliable service.
There were still thousands of Xcel customers without power on Tuesday morning – more than 150,000 customers experienced outages as strong winds moved through Colorado this weekend.
Powerlines were de-energized due to winds causing an increased risk of wildfire in Boulder, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Douglas and Broomfield counties, as well as the west Denver metro area along the foothills.
"Again, we appreciate our customers’ patience as our crews worked throughout the extreme wind event to restore power," Xcel said in an email to 9NEWS. "We recognize that being without this essential service brings challenges. We are learning to live and work with the reality of new, extreme weather events that can affect the grid."
“I believe we made absolutely the right decision,” said Hollie Velasquez Horvath, Xcel's regional vice president, said Sunday. “We have damage on our electric lines that is due to wind. If those lines were energized, that was a risk of a wildfire.”
Xcel said crews needed to inspect the more than 600 miles of powerlines that were preemptively de-energized before power could be restored.
This is the first time Xcel has proactively shut off power before a storm in Colorado. Xcel operates in eight states, and has tried this method in other states. Xcel said de-energizing has become an increasingly common tool in helping reduce the risk of wildfires.
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