Lawmakers question Xcel's wildfire power shutoff plan
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Colorado lawmakers voiced skepticism about Xcel Energy's plan to fine-tune preemptive power shutoffs, signaling growing concern that outages meant to prevent wildfires could become a costly crutch.
Why it matters: As climate change fuels more extreme fire conditions, decisions about how — and whether — to cut power increasingly shape public safety, local economies and trust in essential services across Colorado.
The latest: Xcel president Robert Kenney appeared at the Colorado Capitol on Friday before the Joint Energy Committee.
- That followed a separate meeting with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in which residents and businesses described their struggles and financial losses incurred by December's outages.
What they're saying: Kenney said Xcel is betting that technology can make preemptive power shutoffs "more surgical," shrinking the geographic footprint of outages and restoring service faster when fire danger eases.
- The utility is also working to harden its system by replacing aging infrastructure, including plans to bury 50 additional miles of line — largely in Boulder — as part of a broader mitigation strategy.
- But Kenney cautioned that burying lines is "not a silver bullet" — given it's costly and terrain-dependent.
- Acknowledging customer complaints, Kenney said Xcel is focusing on communication, with upgrades aimed at producing more accurate outage maps and clearer information about where shutoffs are occurring and how long they'll last.
Friction point: Lawmakers said they've heard overwhelming frustration over how Xcel handled shutoffs — from confusing communication to the scope and timing of outages.
- Some lawmakers and local officials noted that other utilities avoided similar measures altogether, while Rep. Lori Garcia Sander of Weld County questioned whether the shutoffs were driven more by "litigation avoidance" than public safety.
The other side: Kenney presented a slide with photos of damage to lines across the Front Range as evidence that Xcel "made the right operational decision" to shut off power.
- He also pointed to Xcel's settlement with Boulder County residents after the Marshall Fire as proof that the company weighs safety over liability, even while maintaining it was not at fault.
- "People are going to sue us regardless ... We take seriously our neighbors' safety and that is job No. 1," Kenney said.
Zoom in: Mike Chard, director at the Office of Disaster Management for the city of Boulder and Boulder County, credited Xcel for making improvements between its first shutdown in 2024 and this December.
- Yes, but: He said it was impossible to ignore the economic impact on residents and businesses. A survey found some Boulder businesses lost as much as $100,000 between the two December outages, and Boulder City Council wrote a letter critical of Xcel's handling of the shutdowns.
- Rep. Lesley Smith, a Boulder-area Democrat, asked Kenney whether Xcel planned to reimburse customers, to which he responded that no such plan is in place: "Outages happen ... Implicit in such a compensation scheme is the expectation of perfection."
The bottom line: Kenney pointed out that Xcel has only conducted three widespread preemptive shutdowns in the last five years, and the back-to-back nature of December's outages was "unprecedented."
- But Evergreen Rep. Tammy Story noted that climate change means extreme fire conditions are likely to be more frequent.
- "We know this is not going away; this was not a freak thing," Story said, adding, "We cannot afford for this to be the go-to response."