DENVER — Xcel Energy announced Tuesday that it anticipates that all customers who lost power in connection with this weekend’s windstorm will be restored by the end of the day.
More than 150,000 Xcel customers lost power at the height of the outage that began as a proactive safety measure Saturday afternoon.
An estimated 55,000 Xcel Energy customers had their power purposely turned off over wildfire concerns amid dangerous winds.
The strong winds that swept through the area took care of an additional 100,000 customers, whose power was knocked out by downed trees and lines.
The company said that more than 500 crew members were working to restore power to the remaining 5% of customers who were still in the dark as of Tuesday evening.
Hollie Velasquez Horvath, regional vice president of Xcel Energy, said the company used an intense scientific analysis before deciding to shut off power to certain areas.
“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.
