DENVER — The Colorado Public Utility Commission formally opened an investigation into Xcel Energy Wednesday following Gov. Jared Polis’ direction to probe the company’s decision to implement a precautionary outage ahead of a windstorm this past weekend.
Xcel on Saturday cut off power to 55,000 customers as winds exceeding 100 mph began to bear down in the Denver area and the foothills. Some customers were without power for days as crews worked to assess and address any damage. Colorado Public Utility Commission opens investigation into Xcel Energy following preemptive power outages A mass action lawsuit against Xcel Energy was filed last year, claiming the energy provider is to blame for the most destructive fire in Colorado history. However, the company maintains its equipment did not start the Marshall Fire and Saturday's prescribed outage was not in response to the lawsuit.
Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, said the company"made every effort" to reach out to customers on Friday about Saturday’s public safety outage. “That involves both evaluating the National Weather Service information on what type of wind, how high the winds are going to be, in addition to the topography of the community, or the area, and also the fuel source. And the fuel source could be a combination between live and dead fuel source on the ground,” Velasquez Horvath said.