LAKEWOOD, Colo — Just blocks away from the Colorado Mills Shopping Center, a suburban Lakewood neighborhood had three power outages in five days last week, with one lasting almost 24 hours.
"This stuff has to get thrown out," said Pat Warling as she sorted through a freezer full of spoiled food Wednesday. "This summer's been horrible. It's been going out at least once a week, and last week was three times."
Next door, Maryann Lamar has been keeping track of the nights she has been left in the dark on her calendar.
"It was hotter than Hades. Last Sunday, I went without the oxygen. I really didn't have a choice," Lamar said. "And I really, to this day, have no idea why the electrical outages were occurring."
Many Xcel Energy customers on the west side of the Denver metro area reached out to Denver7 Investigates about more frequent and longer outages.
The company faced backlash for pre-emptively cutting off power to thousands of people before a windstorm in April out of concern for wildfire risk. But the utility said what happened last week in Lakewood was not planned or proactive. Instead, Xcel Energy said cable failures or other technology issues caused the outage.
However, there is something new with the way Xcel crews are handling outages. In a statement to Denver7, a spokesperson for Xcel said it is now visually inspecting its lines "to ensure these incidents do not create a wildfire risk or ignition."
"Due to the high wildfire threat in the region at this time, we are taking extreme care to visually inspect our lines to ensure these incidents do not create a wildfire risk or ignition. Those inspections may make these outages longer, but it provides the necessary confirmation that we are not putting the public’s safety at risk," the spokesperson said.
Xcel apologized for the inconvenience the outages caused, stating that officials "are taking both short-term and longer-term action to improve the situation and enhance reliability in the area while ensuring we are mitigating wildfire risk or ignition. This includes making adjustments to the system, focusing on equipment, repairs and upgrades."
But Pat is worried the longer outages are the new normal and is keeping a generator ready.
"There's got to be something going on, and they just don't tell you," she said.
The Public Utilities Commission is accepting public comments about Xcel's wildfire mitigation plan. To submit your comments, follow this link.
