The Colorado Public Utilities Commission Adopts Interim Recommendations to Increase Consumer Protections During Weather Events


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October 10, 2024 - Denver -  The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) today considered recommendations to improve Xcel’s communication and notification practices when deploying Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). These shutoffs—which were deployed for the first time in Colorado last April-–involve preemptively shutting off power in certain areas to prevent wildfires during especially dangerous weather conditions. Today’s decision closed the Commission’s investigation into the PSPS Outage from April 2024 (Proceeding No. 24M-0173E), with requirements that Xcel make a series of improvements including: 

  • Continued coordination, including the development of joint plans, with emergency response organizations across Xcel’s service territory
  • Testing messaging systems to reach customers dependent on medical equipment 
  • Clearly identifying critical customers, such as hospitals and wastewater facilities, to receive enhanced notifications 
  • Improving outage and potential proactive power shutoff mapping to be user-friendly, real-time, and indicate the reason for outages 
  • Improving notification prior to an event, and communication throughout an outage, to all of Xcel’s customers including businesses 
  • Monthly updates to the Commission on these actions, including providing the Commission copies of plans reached with Emergency Response organizations

 “The Commission recognized today that Xcel Energy made several, important voluntary improvements after the April outages. Today’s decision builds on those commitments with additional steps that will help further prepare and protect customers during an outage,” said PUC Director Rebecca White. “We appreciate the hundreds of individuals, businesses and local governments that took the time to share their experiences with the April outages and ideas for improvement.” For full details on this discussion, a recording of the hearing can be found on the PUC YouTube Channel. The PUC will issue an order to finalize the decisions discussed today. Commission decisions capture the full context of a proceeding and may be accessed electronically via the e-filing system. 

Separately, the Commission set a procedural schedule for its consideration of Xcel Energy’s 2025-27 Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP) and PSPS Plan in Proceeding No. 24A-0296E. Xcel Energy is seeking PUC approval of $1.9 billion of spending on wildfire mitigation activities and investments. 

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