Xcel Energy Twitter, March 15, 2024.
DENVER (KDVR) — Xcel Energy has submitted a proposed wildfire mitigation plan for the next three years, and if approved as is, the plan would increase residential bills by about 9.56% by 2028 and allow the company to shut off power if it believes its equipment could spark a wildfire.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission will review the plan and citizens will be able to provide feedback during the approval process. A typical residential bill would increase by about $8.88 per month by Jan. 1, 2028 “through semi-annual incremental changes,” Xcel said.
According to the budget provided for the plan submitted to the public utility commission, implementation will cost about $1.9 billion — a costly plan that Xcel says will help “minimize the risks associated with wildfires that could be caused by electrical equipment.”
The company faces at least 302 complaints, according to information it provided to investors, after the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office named the electricity and natural gas provider as a possible cause of second ignition of the Marshall fire on December 30, 2021.
The company disputes that its lines were involved in the ignition. Still, the fire caused more than $2 billion in property losses, according to investigators.
“Ensuring the safety of our customers and communities throughout our service territory is paramount,” said Bob Frenzel, president and CEO of Xcel Energy, when announcing the plan. “Our goal is to ensure that no catastrophic wildfires are started by Xcel Energy assets. And, while we have made significant progress in wildfire safety in Colorado and met key goals, there is still work to do to address the evolving threat. This plan lays out our proposed path to help build a more fire-resilient Colorado, working in partnership with others who are also fighting to protect our communities. »
In the recently filed plan, the company recommends a series of investments and improvements that it says will help prevent electricity from starting more fires, including:
- Added hundreds of weather stations for more detailed information near Xcel power lines
- Triple the number of AI cameras for early smoke detection
- Update the inspection schedule for electrical poles and equipment in wildfire risk areas
- Using inspections to create 3D maps of equipment and terrain in high-risk areas
- Expand vegetation management in high-risk areas and “set new standards for inspections, clearing and pruning frequency”
- Begin a multi-year process of identifying and replacing or upgrading equipment, moving targeted power lines underground, replacing and repairing poles, and rebuilding transmission lines.
- Adding more members to the wildfire risk team
Xcel plans more ‘public safety power outages’
Xcel’s Colorado subsidiary is also facing scrutiny after it cut power during a strong windstorm in early April, a move it said was intended to prevent fires from starting on the power lines – and a decision she wants to recreate.
The company said in its June 27 filing that it wants to increase the number of lines with remote safety settings and also incorporate more outages in the future. In a separate filing with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Xcel shared details of how it plans to implement preemptive power outages.
To decide when customers lose power in the event of a potential fire, Xcel created a “dynamic decision-making process” that describes how weather model forecasts, real-time weather station data, fire spread simulations and risk planning software will be used in combination with historical climate data to decide the best time.
There would be some mitigation of the power outage, according to the company, which has offered a backup power rebate program. The company said customers with qualifying income, a medical exemption rate and a doctor’s certificate could see greater impacts from power outages.
For this reason, it “will offer rebates to customers purchasing battery energy storage systems and Vehicle-to-Home equipment to support the use of electric vehicle batteries.” The rebates, according to the company, are intended to cover all costs of purchasing the equipment and its installation.
However, the unexpected power outage in April led to an investigation by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the same group now tasked with reviewing the proposed wildfire mitigation plan.
The company has created a four-step plan to determine when it will shut off power:
- Monitoring period
- During the monitoring period, Xcel employees will be in a high state of alert and monitoring for low vegetation moisture, extreme wind speeds and low relative humidity.
- Confirmation of failure event
- Event confirmation can occur up to five days before a shutdown. This is the step where the company determines whether the risk to public safety is higher when the device is energized than when it is de-energized.
- Fault zone framing
- At this point, the company can specify the area in which it will cut off power, based on current and forecast weather conditions. Analysis and refinement of the outage area could take place until the end of the outage.
- Restore Power
- “As soon as it is safe to do so, (Xcel) will begin the restoration process.”
The plan also calls for the company to notify local emergency management offices, local and state officials, the public utility commission and “critical customers,” in addition to qualified medical customers, 48 to 72 hours before a power outage.
In the 24 to 48 hours before the planned power outage, the company will notify the above-mentioned agencies, as well as potentially affected customers. About one to four hours before the outage, the company will notify everyone again. The company also plans to post updates “every 24 hours” during a power outage, then finally provide notification when power is restored.
“Xcel Energy is committed to ensuring public safety and reducing the potential and impact of wildfires for our customers, communities and Colorado’s way of life,” said Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy – Colorado. “This proposed plan utilizes strategies and technologies that have proven effective across the country to reduce wildfire threats from public facilities. The plan builds on work already underway, expanding the scope, pace and scale of what is already in place, while leveraging new and emerging technologies to go even further.”
A timeline for when the plan will be discussed by the public utilities commission or when it will be available for public comment has not been announced.