BOULDER, Colo. — The affect of Saturday's Xcel Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) is being felt in different ways by people across Boulder. Some good, others not as much.
Roughly 14,000 people in Boulder County alone are expected to be impacted by the shutoff, which is slated to run from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.
"There is this sense of anxiety," said Senior Director of Policy Programs for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce Jonathan Singer. "And it's a real sense of anxiety — if this does last longer than what was expected, am I ready?"
Despite the warning Xcel Energy gave, not everyone knew what to expect.
“We had no idea that there was really any concern about the power until you guys called us," Shift Lead for OZO Coffee Shop on Pearl Street Kate Malkinson told Denver7's Tyler Melito early Saturday morning.
Malkinson said similar to the outage residents in Boulder experienced in December, if they lose power Saturday, they're most likely going to close down for the day.
"We're gonna try to stay open as long as we can, just roll with the punches," Makinson explained. "Our priority is keeping the community safe but it's definitely not ideal. We're a local business, we rely on every hour we can get, and all of us need to be paid."
There's also a problem if the shop loses power, especially for longer than expected.
"We have a lot of dairy products,” Malkinson said.
For OZO, they plan on staying open Sunday, assuming nothing major happens in regards to the outage, but as for their dairy products, that is still to be determined.
Because of the uncertainty some businesses are facing, Singer said the chamber and the city are looking at ways to help the entire community down the road.
"We can build, in the short term, things for our restaurants," Singer said. "When can we put in refrigerated trucks to make sure that food doesn't go bad? When can we make sure that for our seniors and our elders and other folks who are vulnerable, that they get their power on fast and quickly?”
Singer said they're also looking to the future.
"Long-term, what can we do to build real resiliency within our grid?" Singer asked. "You're hearing about state legislation right now that's actually talking about new ways of funding this without even raising taxes."
But for some Boulder businesses, the planned outage has seen more customers. Take McGuckin Hardware, for example.
Manager Kris Sprigg said the outage has actually helped them, since the winter hasn't yielded the same business as expected.
"We have definitely been affected due to the lack of weather, if you will," Sprigg explained. "As unfortunate as it is (to now have snow), we're definitely able to meet the customers' needs, and we definitely see a big uptick in travel during this time.”
And Sprigg said people have been coming into the store for just about everything.
"Batteries and lanterns were basically the big things," Sprigg said. "We definitely went through several 100 lanterns at the time. Generators were definitely big."
Sprigg hopes she and her coworkers can give their neighbors peace of mind during this time of uncertainty.
"I just had a conversation with a young lady — that was her biggest panic this last time, was her cell phone almost didn't make it through the entire power outage," Sprigg recalled. "So, she actually came in and got one of the power banks from us."
Because of the outage, there is a renewed push by some to change how Xcel Energy's power lines are configured.
"We want Xcel to bury the power lines," Malkinson said. "We understand that it's a significant cost and it's a lot of time and a lot of money, but I think it's the best thing for our infrastructure, and it's a vital investment for our city, including both our residential areas and our commercial spaces, and improving the resilience and safety of our local grid remains a high priority for our community."
Springer shared with Melito that projects are already in the works to bury lines underground, but Xcel Energy and the city are also looking at other options too.
"Sometimes that's burying power lines, sometimes that's micro grids, sometimes that's battery storage," Springer detailed. "It's an all-of-the-above approach, and we're having those conversations with our Public Utilities Commission and our elected officials."
You can learn more about the undergrounding power lines project in Boulder here.
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