More than 150,000 Xcel customers lost power throughout Colorado this weekend, due to high winds and a corporate decision to turn off service in certain areas. The company predicts it could take through Monday — or longer — to restore power.
Spokesperson Tyler Bryant estimated that around 100,000 customers suffered power outages because of extreme winds. On Saturday, Xcel also turned off the power of another 55,000 customers in six counties — Boulder, Gilpin, Larimer, Douglas, Broomfield and Jefferson — “as a public safety measure” to mitigate wildfire risk, Bryant added.
That decision resulted in the loss of energy across more than 600 miles of power lines, he said. Crews are required to “visually inspect the lines” before turning the power back on. Bryant said the restoration process could extend into Monday “or longer.”
As of Sunday at 11 a.m., over 800 outages affecting more than 77,500 customers were recorded throughout the Denver metro, according to the Xcel electric outage map. Meanwhile, almost 37,000 Boulder area residents were impacted by close to 70 outages, and more than 3,000 Fort Collins area residents were affected by 28 outages.
Other areas also reported scattered outages, including Loveland, Greeley, Sterling, Brush, Idaho Springs and Leadville.
However, some Xcel customers took to social media platform X to question the accuracy of the company’s outage map.
“This morning, Xcel Energy crews are out assessing damage to the electric system caused by extremely high winds in parts of Colorado that started yesterday afternoon and continue into this morning,” Bryant said in an emailed statement. “Crews are assessing damage now and will begin working to restore power in these areas after winds have died down.”
This weekend, power outages were evident across central Colorado.
Eric Marburger, a resident of Centennial’s Southglenn neighborhood, woke up to two decades-old pine trees that toppled in a neighbor’s yard, knocking over power line in the process. “We may be down for a few days,” he said.
Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett reported that his household lost power at 3 p.m. on Saturday after receiving prior notice in an email from Xcel around 10 a.m., he wrote in an X post. As of Sunday morning, other X users noted that power remained off in some parts of downtown Boulder.
Several blocks of South Broadway, a major Denver thoroughfare, sat noticeably dark on Saturday evening, with the Landmark Mayan Theatre’s iconic neon sign turned off and restaurants shuttered early.
Meredith Brown, who lives in southwest Denver’s Harvey Park neighborhood, said her power went out around 8 p.m. on Saturday, but Xcel hasn’t provided an estimated restoration time yet.
For now, she’s “wondering if this will be hours or days and trying to decide if we should go buy a generator.” Brown called the situation “a mess.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
