Posted on 05/01/2025 5:42:27 AM PDT by george76
Blackouts are becoming longer and more common in Xcel’s Colorado service territory, with 90,000 customers experiencing 6 or more outages in 2024..
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity provider, is having increasing difficulty answering customer calls, sending out bills and keeping the lights on, according to two reports by state utility regulators.
Blackouts more than doubled in 2024 and customer complaints have jumped 100% in three years, according to a Colorado Public Utilities Commission briefing Wednesday on outages.
Outages have become more prevalent across Xcel Energy’s service territory which includes zones from the northeast, near Sterling, to Greeley, the Denver metro area, the San Luis Valley, the central mountains and Grand Junction.
In 2024 the average Xcel customer experienced 350 outage minutes, compared to an average of 166 minutes between 2014 and 2023, and more customers were hit with multiple and longer blackouts, according to a PUC staff analysis.
At the same time, customer complaints rose to 1,728 in 2024 from 873 in 2022. The number of customers not receiving bills was up 58% and the time to resolve billing problems stretched to three months. The utility serves 1.5 million people in the state.
A big part of the problem, the commission’s chief economist Erin O’Neill said, was due to a 10% reduction in staff and a 5% cut in the customer service budget between 2022 and 2024. O’Neill noted that electric rates increased 30% over the same period.
“We’re seeing a company before us requesting tens of billions of dollars to buy new things, to do new things when they appear to be falling short of their basic core commitments to the customers that they exist to serve,” Commissioner Megan Gilman said.
Xcel Energy operates in eight states with Colorado and Minnesota its biggest markets. In the first quarter of 2024 it reported $483 million in profit, with Colorado accounting for 53% of earnings – the largest single share.
“This is a regulated monopoly operating in a legally defined service territory where competition is prohibited, and in return for that privilege of operating as a monopoly, they shouldn’t be driving profit at the expense of customers,” PUC Chairman Eric Blank said.
“Aren’t they obligated to act in the public interest and answer the phone and bill customers, and avoid and respond to outages?” Blank asked.
...
The outages, however, have been widespread. One stretch of South Broadway in Denver, with 178 businesses and not on one of the bad feeders, suffered 13 outages in 2024, including one that lasted a day and a half, according to a filing.
At the Waterworks Car Wash, cars were soaped up and moving through the tunnel when the power went out. “We had to manually guide cars out, hand wash them down and give complimentary wash for the inconvenience,” said Marty Krekow, Waterworks’ general manager.
Krekow said there have already been four outages in 2025.
Last July 13, the Colorado Brewers Rendezvous was in full swing in Salida when the power went out at the craft beer festival,
“Vendors were unable to process credit card payments on the busiest day of the festival, resulting in untold losses of revenue,” Salida Mayor Dan Shore said in a letter to the PUC.
“The City of Salida is solely dependent on sales tax revenue and the multitude of outages experienced during the summer directly affected revenue,” Shore said. He listed 14 blackouts over a four-month period, the longest lasting nearly 10 hours.
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Xcel Energy’s goal of a response to a customer call in 45 seconds was met 75% of the time in 2023, but a year later it had fallen to 45%. The average wait time was 452 seconds, or about 7.5 minutes.
The number of abandoned calls quadrupled with Xcel Energy customers hanging up in 200,000 cases. “They couldn’t wait to get a response from the company,” O’Neill said. There were 100,000 times when customers were auto-disconnected.
excel is essentially run by the colorado PUC, which has mandated so-called “green” energy as its primary mission, reliability and affordability be damned ... reliable power generating plants are being closed and billions are being spent on windmills and solar panels, all at the expense of the ratepayers, and the expense of a reliable power grid ...
this green energy scam is a slow-motion train wreck, and it will be interesting to see how many power failures voters will put up with before (if ever) they push back ... of course, by then it’ll essentially be too late, because it will take years to build back reliable power generation ...
Xcel Energy has significantly expanded its renewable energy portfolio, driven by the state’s voter-approved Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) since 2004. The RPS MANDATES that 30% of electricity sold by investor-owned utilities come from renewable sources. In 2023, renewable energy sources (primarily wind, solar, and hydroelectric) accounted for nearly two-fifths of Colorado’s electricity net generation, with Xcel Energy meeting the 30% RPS requirement.
Since 2010, Colorado’s renewable electricity generation has quadrupled, with Xcel playing a key role through investments in wind and solar. Wind energy alone provided 28% of the state’s electricity in 2023, followed by solar at 8.4% and hydroelectric at 2.9%.
In 2022, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved Xcel’s Clean Energy Plan, aiming for 80% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050, with an 85% carbon emission reduction from 2005 levels by 2030.
Xcel’s October 2024 proposal to replace the coal-fired Comanche Unit 3 plant in Pueblo (set to close by 2031) includes up to 14 gigawatts of new capacity, with the majority from renewables like wind, solar, and battery storage, though 1.5–2.6 gigawatts would come from new natural gas plants.
n 2024, Xcel Energy’s facilities generated 24% of electricity from renewable fuels, with wind and solar dominating, while 76% came from nonrenewable sources (natural gas, coal). Small-scale solar, including customer-owned photovoltaic panels, contributed 2,036 GWh to Colorado’s grid in 2024, about 40% of utility-scale solar output.
The Comanche Generating Station Unit 1 is set to retire in 2025, Unit 2 in 2025, and Unit 3 by 2031 (originally 2040).
The Hayden Generating Station Unit 1 will close in 2028, Unit 2 in 2027 (previously 2030 and 2036).
The Pawnee Generating Station (Brush) will transition from coal to natural gas by 2026.
By 2029, approximately 2,500 megawatts of coal-fired capacity in Colorado will retire, reducing coal’s share from 28% of the state’s electricity mix in 2024.
All of those Colorado voters who approved "green" energy are all energy experts, but why didn't they specify Unicorn Farts and Skittle Rainbows as the preferred energy source is beyond me.
Six times a year? Gimme a break. That is normal in northern CaCaLand.
When I first moved to Frisco area 35+ years ago I was disgusted with PG&E’s outages every few weeks. And, I live in a very upscale burb right next to a major hospital. I worked for them for ten years — and spotted the problems early on. Their management sucks. And, this was in comparison to the management techniques I experienced by working for a near identical company in the deep South for nine years.
Failures have nothing to do with overhead lines, earthquakes, storms, etc. It is about management getting a rate increase (or, more likely permission to change the tiers in the rate structure) and then personally pocketing the $$ instead of making the necessary upgrades. Not hyperbole’ — this came out in a court case.
Xcel has virtual forests of wind turbines and acres of solar farms in Minnesota, which are frequently idle with the fickle winds and when the sun doesn’t shine. The recent blackouts in Spain should be a wake up call that solar and wind cannot reliably power an industrial society.
During the 2017 legislative session, Xcel.. failed in the Colorado state Senate.. because it made zero economic sense to force Coloradans to pay to shut down our most affordable and dependable - rate payer = paid for - power plants that run 24/7, in favor of unreliable wind turbines and solar panels that increase electricity costs while decreasing dependability.
After the session, Xcel changed its tune.. by going to then governor Hickenlooper and the Public Utilities Commission for something it could not get passed through the Legislature... as its Minnesota executives and Wall Street shareholders laugh their way to the bank. Kickbacks to .. ?.
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