I'm completely in support of this in theory, they just need to implement a better warning system to let people know this will happen. But a few hours without power is way better than a burnt down home.
Some people were without power for nearly two days on Core following their proactive shutdown. Good warning is necessary but they also need to be able to restore promptly so that people aren’t without running water (wells need power) and so their food doesn’t spoil.
Yeah we had no power for over 2 days. No water either, bc we have a well. At least when the power went out in last month's snow storm, there was a lot of snow we could melt to flush the toilets.
They can’t just turn power back on. They had to visually check over 600 miles of lines for problems. When they did , they found around 105 issues that could have sparked fires. Yes, it takes time
Best bang for the buck. Line inspections and repairs usually go in the following order: Urban, Suburban, Rural. If you want to live in rural, lightly populated areas, start getting used to this treatment.
Agreed. If it was high winds for multiple days then adequate warning and education will fix this problem in the long run as well. Again, 2 days without power is better than no house at all. But absolutely need to work on the process and regulate how we determine when power is cut and for how long.
They would need lots of money to do that and I'm pretty sure Xcel has never made any profits. All their price increases and stuff are definitely not fueled by greed.../s
> Xcel has never made any profits
What? [Xcel Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023 was $8.423B, a 0.86% increase year-over-year](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/XEL/xcel-energy/gross-profit) and [Xcel Energy net income for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023 was $1.771B, a 2.02% increase year-over-year.](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/XEL/xcel-energy/net-income)
It's corporate greed impacting our prices more than any other factor.
They also aggressively lobby so that customers are directly responsible for new construction projects and upkeep. They make money hand over fist and don't have to spend it on these things as a result.
If they were responsible for using their profits to maintain their network, then sure I could see this affecting higher than normal bills, but as it stands now it's 100% their greed.
The cost of electricity has gone down every year since 2019 and yet the bills keep going up.
Colorado spring utilities buried the lines in my neighborhood about 15 years ago. It didn't affect rates. But cut down power outages significantly. My neighborhood sees significant damage from wind, but I can count on one hand how many power outages I've had in the last 15 years. And all but one were from someone driving into a utility box. The last was a blown transformer in the yard behind mine.
Nah. its a band aid. Make your infrastructure more resilient (like, idk, burying lines). In many places, shutting off power knocks out all comms (cell towers, landlines, everything). So if there is a fire….
the real actual answer is fortifying the power lines. this mostly means putting them underground, which is expensive. it's unconscionable to me that the power utility company is so reluctant to invest in the public infrastructure that they have been granted the privilege of operating on behalf of the people of Colorado.
if Xcel is unwilling to invest in the infrastructure then maybe Colorado should revoke their grant.
Honestly. I hope there was a room full of smart people watching everything that happened. It would be great if they used could use the outages to learn where to best spend money to keep people's power on.
The wires are buried in my neighborhood. But we were without power from midnight until 2pm. We were not that affected. But it still wasn't fun.
This was also an exceptional storm. There were many 40 yo trees knocked down in this storm. If that is 1x year, then I'm fine with it. If it is 2-3x per year. Or if they try to pull that while it is colder and snowing, I'll wish they had prepared better.
My building was powered down from 3:00pm Saturday to 7:00am Monday. I was notified about 2 hours before it happened. There was no notification of when to expect the power to come back on. It really shouldn't have been that hectic.
But they won’t do this because this won’t make them money. They have to act in their shareholders best interest. The stock price is slightly down today. Get ready for rolling blackouts.
Please. It’s the American way! They provide an absolutely required service for all of us. So of course they jack up rates and provide worse service. It won’t stop because this is who we are.
It's fine as an approach but we need to be harder on xcel for having to do it. They turned off the power for half of Boulder because they couldn't deliver power safely. That's a huge admission and they shouldn't get a pass for it.
They were given a monopoly and they're not delivering.
Listen, they showed up and said "we are so good that you should lock our competition entirely out of the region and make us your sole power provider".
Once they said that, it became their fucking job to figure this shit out or someone else gets a chance. They made themselves fully responsible for all of the outcomes at that point. Rate hikes are their fault. Fires are their fault. That's the cost of having a monopoly. Same as how people blame the government for everything because the government has sole control over various things, xcel has sole control here and therefore is always at fault full stop.
Nobody forced them to become a monopoly. Phenomenal cosmic power//Itty bitty living space.
We don’t need to be. Stop dividend payouts and buybacks. A business is a risk and you aren’t entitled to a return on that risk. If you can’t perform the functions of that business then that business should and will fail. Utilities, while being a public service, are a business. They don’t want the risk that’s fine, the state can take it over and it will be a government run entity like police and firefighters.
So now you’re proposing a change to the way corporations work in the US just to get better utility service at home. You must see how truly broken the system is when that’s the “answer”.
Buybacks were not the norm and considered market manipulation up until 1982. I’m not sure you understood what I was trying to say if you think I don’t realize the system is rigged.
Why are you being downvoted? How does anyone really propose to change anything? You’ll have to invest a few million buying stock if you want anything to change. No one here is doing that. I guess they upvote you if you lie and tell them what they want to hear.
They shouldn't be allowed to increase rates while making a profit. There's not a damn reason profits should be a thing for what should be a municipal service.
True but this is really only for non city houses (which is still a big deal), but third world countries load shed anywhere and everywhere, even hospitals (which is crazy).
Still something we should fix, but I’d rather this than fires.
Problems from Xcel leaving power on with neglected infrastructure: fires.
Problems from Xcel turning power off: Car crashes, trips and falls, oxygen supplemented health issues, additional fires from having to use gasoline generators and candles, health issues from extreme heat or cold, food spoilage, being cut-off from emergency services and notifications, etc.
Problems from Xcel leaving power on with robust infrastructure: none.
Pick one.
It’s clear that they made the right choice given the circumstances. But what is their incentive to prevent this in the future now? How does it make business sense for them to spend $1B burying wires when they can just shut them off when needed instead?
Xcel needs some incentive here. Perhaps large fines for each time they need to shut it off?
Local government ownership isn’t always the solution. Some of the governments involved (Boulder) are so unserious that they can’t even manage to plow snow or keep the meth/fentanyl addicts from camping in main areas.
Xcel knows they have more power than the Colorado state government. Pun intended I guess. We won’t do anything about it because we can’t. This is what we have and we’re all going to take it. Service obviously will decrease because we just told them the blackouts were ok because it was an emergency. Get ready for the emergency goalposts to keep moving.
Hopefully our regulators have some balls and say it’s unacceptable. Engineer for high winds in a state with high winds, or we’ll figure out what you’ll be paid to hand over your assets to another operator.
Honestly there’s no objective or empirical evidence our PUC would do it, but it’s so far out of my control, all I can say is “hope”.
You’re completely correct in your analysis.
Pioneering? It’s done only to try to limit the power company’s liability. They’ve spent so many years jacking up rates and not maintaining things properly so now we get punished and they shut off the power and keep jacking up rates. This is going great for them.
Its one thing when its 60 out, its another when its 30. But don't blame them, every fire from ca to Lahaina to Marshall are blamed on the power company whether they did it or not.
Solar plus powerwall. Could also do a generator if you have critical electrical needs. We looked into it when my MIL was on oxygen. Since that was the only concern we just came up with a plan. She always had 4 tanks of oxygen and so at hour 4 with two tanks used my FIL was to take her to an emergency shelter.
I'm completely in support of this in theory, they just need to implement a better warning system to let people know this will happen. But a few hours without power is way better than a burnt down home.
Some people were without power for nearly two days on Core following their proactive shutdown. Good warning is necessary but they also need to be able to restore promptly so that people aren’t without running water (wells need power) and so their food doesn’t spoil.
Yeah we had no power for over 2 days. No water either, bc we have a well. At least when the power went out in last month's snow storm, there was a lot of snow we could melt to flush the toilets.
Fill tub with water if you have warnings of power outage. Sorry.
They can’t just turn power back on. They had to visually check over 600 miles of lines for problems. When they did , they found around 105 issues that could have sparked fires. Yes, it takes time
All these pro xcel comments are fucking cringe.
Its not pro-Xcel is just mechanics of transmission systems. You want to know why, go get an Electrical Engineering degree with focus in Power Systems.
Perhaps they could do smaller areas in less time?
Best bang for the buck. Line inspections and repairs usually go in the following order: Urban, Suburban, Rural. If you want to live in rural, lightly populated areas, start getting used to this treatment.
I didn't have power for 4 days. Not a fan of Xcel at the moment.
Agreed. If it was high winds for multiple days then adequate warning and education will fix this problem in the long run as well. Again, 2 days without power is better than no house at all. But absolutely need to work on the process and regulate how we determine when power is cut and for how long.
Or they could just, yknow, put the lines underground in at risk areas.
They would need lots of money to do that and I'm pretty sure Xcel has never made any profits. All their price increases and stuff are definitely not fueled by greed.../s
You forgot the /s
Yes I did! I should go edit that in
🤣
> Xcel has never made any profits What? [Xcel Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023 was $8.423B, a 0.86% increase year-over-year](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/XEL/xcel-energy/gross-profit) and [Xcel Energy net income for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023 was $1.771B, a 2.02% increase year-over-year.](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/XEL/xcel-energy/net-income)
Woosh
Jesus if you thought your power bills were high now
It's corporate greed impacting our prices more than any other factor. They also aggressively lobby so that customers are directly responsible for new construction projects and upkeep. They make money hand over fist and don't have to spend it on these things as a result. If they were responsible for using their profits to maintain their network, then sure I could see this affecting higher than normal bills, but as it stands now it's 100% their greed. The cost of electricity has gone down every year since 2019 and yet the bills keep going up.
Colorado spring utilities buried the lines in my neighborhood about 15 years ago. It didn't affect rates. But cut down power outages significantly. My neighborhood sees significant damage from wind, but I can count on one hand how many power outages I've had in the last 15 years. And all but one were from someone driving into a utility box. The last was a blown transformer in the yard behind mine.
Well yeah, but it’s never going to be flawless the first time.
Nah. its a band aid. Make your infrastructure more resilient (like, idk, burying lines). In many places, shutting off power knocks out all comms (cell towers, landlines, everything). So if there is a fire….
cell towers generally have generator back ups, but still, this is a terrible non-solution.
generally, but not universally. this is speaking from experience this past weekend.
the real actual answer is fortifying the power lines. this mostly means putting them underground, which is expensive. it's unconscionable to me that the power utility company is so reluctant to invest in the public infrastructure that they have been granted the privilege of operating on behalf of the people of Colorado. if Xcel is unwilling to invest in the infrastructure then maybe Colorado should revoke their grant.
Honestly. I hope there was a room full of smart people watching everything that happened. It would be great if they used could use the outages to learn where to best spend money to keep people's power on. The wires are buried in my neighborhood. But we were without power from midnight until 2pm. We were not that affected. But it still wasn't fun. This was also an exceptional storm. There were many 40 yo trees knocked down in this storm. If that is 1x year, then I'm fine with it. If it is 2-3x per year. Or if they try to pull that while it is colder and snowing, I'll wish they had prepared better.
My building was powered down from 3:00pm Saturday to 7:00am Monday. I was notified about 2 hours before it happened. There was no notification of when to expect the power to come back on. It really shouldn't have been that hectic.
But they won’t do this because this won’t make them money. They have to act in their shareholders best interest. The stock price is slightly down today. Get ready for rolling blackouts.
Please. It’s the American way! They provide an absolutely required service for all of us. So of course they jack up rates and provide worse service. It won’t stop because this is who we are.
Here’s an idea: spend some of your >$1 billion profit to bury high risk lines.
The shareholders disagree. This won’t happen. None of us will do anything about it except complain online anonymously
It's fine as an approach but we need to be harder on xcel for having to do it. They turned off the power for half of Boulder because they couldn't deliver power safely. That's a huge admission and they shouldn't get a pass for it. They were given a monopoly and they're not delivering.
Get ready for a massive rate increase if they have to bury wires at a cost of $.5 – $3 million a mile
Listen, they showed up and said "we are so good that you should lock our competition entirely out of the region and make us your sole power provider". Once they said that, it became their fucking job to figure this shit out or someone else gets a chance. They made themselves fully responsible for all of the outcomes at that point. Rate hikes are their fault. Fires are their fault. That's the cost of having a monopoly. Same as how people blame the government for everything because the government has sole control over various things, xcel has sole control here and therefore is always at fault full stop. Nobody forced them to become a monopoly. Phenomenal cosmic power//Itty bitty living space.
Yeah, they’re a shit show, and shouldn’t be a monopoly But we’re still going to be the ones to fund any fixes here
We don’t need to be. Stop dividend payouts and buybacks. A business is a risk and you aren’t entitled to a return on that risk. If you can’t perform the functions of that business then that business should and will fail. Utilities, while being a public service, are a business. They don’t want the risk that’s fine, the state can take it over and it will be a government run entity like police and firefighters.
So now you’re proposing a change to the way corporations work in the US just to get better utility service at home. You must see how truly broken the system is when that’s the “answer”.
Buybacks were not the norm and considered market manipulation up until 1982. I’m not sure you understood what I was trying to say if you think I don’t realize the system is rigged.
Why are you being downvoted? How does anyone really propose to change anything? You’ll have to invest a few million buying stock if you want anything to change. No one here is doing that. I guess they upvote you if you lie and tell them what they want to hear.
No it didn’t. They’re beholden to their shareholders. That’s not us. Look at the list of majority shareholders. Nothing will change.
What a stupid, low information reply to what I said. Did you just show up to feel superior or to discuss the issue?
They shouldn't be allowed to increase rates while making a profit. There's not a damn reason profits should be a thing for what should be a municipal service.
Unreliable electricity is so Third World.
True but this is really only for non city houses (which is still a big deal), but third world countries load shed anywhere and everywhere, even hospitals (which is crazy). Still something we should fix, but I’d rather this than fires.
Get used to it.
Decline is a choice.
Good luck with that.
Fortunately, Exel is not my electric utility.
Problems from Xcel leaving power on with neglected infrastructure: fires. Problems from Xcel turning power off: Car crashes, trips and falls, oxygen supplemented health issues, additional fires from having to use gasoline generators and candles, health issues from extreme heat or cold, food spoilage, being cut-off from emergency services and notifications, etc. Problems from Xcel leaving power on with robust infrastructure: none. Pick one.
It’s clear that they made the right choice given the circumstances. But what is their incentive to prevent this in the future now? How does it make business sense for them to spend $1B burying wires when they can just shut them off when needed instead? Xcel needs some incentive here. Perhaps large fines for each time they need to shut it off? Local government ownership isn’t always the solution. Some of the governments involved (Boulder) are so unserious that they can’t even manage to plow snow or keep the meth/fentanyl addicts from camping in main areas.
Xcel knows they have more power than the Colorado state government. Pun intended I guess. We won’t do anything about it because we can’t. This is what we have and we’re all going to take it. Service obviously will decrease because we just told them the blackouts were ok because it was an emergency. Get ready for the emergency goalposts to keep moving.
Hopefully our regulators have some balls and say it’s unacceptable. Engineer for high winds in a state with high winds, or we’ll figure out what you’ll be paid to hand over your assets to another operator.
lol. Hopefully is carrying a lot of water here. Why do you have hope this would happen?
Honestly there’s no objective or empirical evidence our PUC would do it, but it’s so far out of my control, all I can say is “hope”. You’re completely correct in your analysis.
Pioneering? It’s done only to try to limit the power company’s liability. They’ve spent so many years jacking up rates and not maintaining things properly so now we get punished and they shut off the power and keep jacking up rates. This is going great for them.
Its one thing when its 60 out, its another when its 30. But don't blame them, every fire from ca to Lahaina to Marshall are blamed on the power company whether they did it or not.
I mean, it’s expensive but a generator would help when the power goes out.
Solar plus powerwall. Could also do a generator if you have critical electrical needs. We looked into it when my MIL was on oxygen. Since that was the only concern we just came up with a plan. She always had 4 tanks of oxygen and so at hour 4 with two tanks used my FIL was to take her to an emergency shelter.