Xcel will shut off energy to 55,000 Colorado clients throughout six counties for greater than 24 hours Saturday, citing the weekends harmful wind situations and wildfire dangers.
Among the power firm’s clients in Boulder, Gilpin, Larimer, Douglas, Broomfield and Jefferson Counties will see deliberate outages beginning round 3 p.m. Saturday that can proceed by midday Sunday, based on an Xcel information launch.
Xcel offers electrical energy and pure gasoline to 1.6 million clients throughout Colorado.
Outages might final past Sunday as a result of crews need to bodily examine the powerlines earlier than turning them again on, Xcel acknowledged within the launch.
“Prospects who use medical gear that depends on electrical service ought to take steps to arrange for prolonged outages,” the discharge acknowledged. “Briefly shutting energy off is meant to stop our electrical system from changing into the supply of a wildfire ignition.”
Xcel is going through lots of of lawsuits after investigators concluded one of many firm’s powerlines helped spark the wind-driven Marshall hearth in Boulder County in 2021; the utility has disputed that conclusion.
Even with the deliberate outages, the excessive winds might injury electrical gear and trigger further outages of their very own, Xcel stated. Outages brought on by these winds could also be extra frequent and longer lasting than regular.
Xcel clients can examine present outages on-line after 3 p.m.
It is a growing story.
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