The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is looking into recent power outages reported by Xcel Energy customers to determine whether the number of outages and complaints are on the rise.
The three-member commission voted Wednesday to support the PUC’s staff recommendation to investigate the causes of the outages as well as rules for reporting interruptions in electric service. The staff will write a report and recommend changes.
Complaints from residents and business owners over a weekend in late August as well as ongoing concerns in certain neighborhoods prompted the PUC to act. Commission Chairman Eric Blank characterized the decision as a search for more information.
“The word ‘investigation’ suggests there’s necessarily a problem. It sounds like maybe that’s not where we are yet. It sounds like we just have a number of questions and our process for doing that is through an investigatory docket,” Blank said.
Erin O’Neill, a deputy director at the PUC, said the staff is trying to get a grasp of the situation.
“That’s the first step, just understanding the lay of the land and what’s happening,” O’Neill said. “At this point in time, there’s no indication that the company has done anything wrong. We’re just trying to understand what the drivers are and what the company is doing to try to help mitigate the situation where customers are experiencing outages.”
Those drivers might include aging infrastructure or equipment designed to cut power to reduce the risk of wildfires. Xcel attributed intermittent outages this summer in Silverthorne to overly sensitive settings on equipment that shuts off power lines.
About 55,000 customers along the Front Range experienced outages in April when fierce winds walloped the area, knocking out power and leading Xcel to proactively cut power to minimize the chances of wind-whipped electrical equipment igniting wildfires. Commission member Tom Plant questioned whether the preemptive shutdowns have heightened concerns about having the electricity go out.
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The preemptive shutdowns generated widespread complaints about business losses, threats to municipal infrastructure and risks for people dependent on electric-powered medical devices.
Xcel Energy said the reasons for recent outages across the Denver area are varied and include a fault in a cable; shutdowns for maintenance; equipment failures; bad weather; lines cut during …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Business
