Tag: Xcel
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EDITORIAL: What’s the cost of no power to Coloradans?
It long has been fashionable among the zero-emissions set to “calculate” the wide-ranging costs to society of carbon-emitting fuels. The perils posed by that carbon footprint are said to range from ill health to doomsday for all humanity. The probability of either of those scenarios, or any in between, varies from one advocacy group to…
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Proposal seeks to balance emissions goals with blackout risks in Colorado
A group of researchers is proposing a “social cost of blackouts” framework to balance reliability and energy affordability with emissions reduction goals in electricity planning. The approach, from Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling of Always On Energy Research, would give regulators a tool similar to the federal government’s “social cost of carbon.” That federal metric…
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Xcel summer time-of-use rates begin, officials urge load shifting
The Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate is urging residential customers to shift heavy electricity use away from evening hours as Xcel Energy’s summer time-of-use rates took effect Monday. The two-tier summer schedule approved by the Public Utilities Commission charges significantly more during peak weekday evenings. For many households, the flat-rate alternative sits at…
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Are our overlords normalizing power outages? | Jon Caldara
I’ve lived in Colorado since 1970. And you know what Colorado had back in 1970? High winds blowing down the Front Range. I moved to Boulder in 1984 and have been there ever since. And you know what Boulder has had all that time? A freakin’ lot of high winds. I remember as a college…
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Colorado lawmakers mull competing bills on data centers
A Colorado coalition of data center developers and operators is urging lawmakers to pass a proposal that offers tax breaks to attract large facilities, while calling a competing bill a major obstacle to new investment. Meanwhile, proponents of the latter proposal have maintained they don’t intend to ban, via regulation, the building of new data…
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EDITORIAL: Don’t leave Coloradans in the dark
When residents spoke at last week’s meeting of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the state’s utility companies, they gave them an earful about Xcel Energy’s “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” in December. The utility giant — a state-regulated monopoly — shut off power to Jefferson County, Boulder and other northern Colorado Front Range communities…
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Power restored after outage impacts Denver airport trains, 195k customers Sunday
A power outage in southeast metro Denver was restored Sunday evening after halting the Denver International Airport trains and leaving 195,000 customers without electricity. In a statement provided to The Denver Gazette’s news partners 9NEWS Sunday night, Xcel said just before 3 p.m. Sunday, a transformer failed at an Xcel substation, resulting in damage to…
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Businesses face losses after Xcel power shutoffs
Restaurants west of Denver are still coming to grips with product losses and future revenue concerns after power shutoffs last week by Xcel Energy, which cited high winds as the rationale for the decision. “It’s like living in a third-world country,” Brandon Bortles, owner of Nosu Ramen and Abejas Bistro in Golden, said Tuesday. “We’re…
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Xcel president says Polis criticism ‘uninformed,’ most to get power back by 10 p.m.
As tens of thousands of Xcel Energy customers remained without power Saturday morning, officials said criticism about what some called the organization’s lack of communication was unwarranted. Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, said that the company had communicated with customers as early as last week about potential power shutoffs, and had worked with…
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Xcel’s blackouts show it’s behind the times | Jimmy Sengenberger
Driving into Golden with my fiancée on Wednesday night, we entered what felt like a ghost town. Streetlights vanished. Buildings went dark. Darkness surrounded us. For several minutes, we experienced what tens of thousands of Coloradans were feeling — life without power in the night. And not the sweet, romantic, candlelit kind. Xcel Energy’s planned…