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The state’s largest utility will file a new wildfire mitigation plan next month. What might that look like?
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Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

The state’s largest utility will file a new wildfire mitigation plan next month. What might that look like?

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun An inquiry by state regulators into Xcel Energy’s April “public safety” electricity outage — which created chaos in parts of the Front Range — has yielded a list of potential steps utilities and communities might take to limit future problems. Faced with high winds April 6, Xcel Energy, the state’s largest electricity provider, preemptively shut down parts of its electric grid to reduce wildfire risk. The shut-offs lasted through April 7. Local emergency management officials complained there was inadequate notice of the shut-offs and in Boulder County the wastewater treatment plant was close to dumping raw sewage into Boulder Creek before power was restored. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
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Orr, Rolling: Xcel power blackout showcases the high cost of unreliable electricity
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Approved, Commentary, completecolorado.com

Orr, Rolling: Xcel power blackout showcases the high cost of unreliable electricity

 By Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling | Complete Colorado Hundreds of thousands of Xcel Energy customers in Colorado recenlty lost power as high winds damaged power lines, and Xcel preemptively shut off the power to 55,000 customers to mitigate the risk of wildfires. Among the customers who lost power were homeowners and small businesses who received little to no warning. The Denver Post detailed how families experienced entire refrigerators and freezers full of food spoiling, forcing them to refill them at a time when food costs are 25 percent higher than they were four years ago. Business owners without power lost tens of thousands of dollars due to the outages, which stemmed from lost revenue from being unable to do business and lost products. Restaurant...
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