BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — High winds predicted for Thursday are prompting proactive measures by energy providers like Xcel.
The company plans to implement an enhanced powerline safety setting — making lines more sensitive and automatically shut off power if something hits the line — on Thursday in several counties to allow power to remain in service with additional sensitivity protections in place.
But Xcel and the City of Boulder are working on a long-term solution amid community pushback on public safety power shutoffs. Part of that includes continuing to bury power lines; 60% of the city's power lines are already underground, according to a city webpage.
Several projects are already in progress, as the City of Boulder undergoes major infrastructure changes that are set to be complete in 2027. That includes in the Chautauqua neighborhood where Denver7 spoke with several residents.
For some who live and play in Boulder County, there's concern over the possibility of losing power Thursday.
“We lost power for two separate days, for full days," Reaves said of a similar weather event in December. "So, you know, it's kind of stressed out about the fridge and that kind of stuff and sort of being in the dark. So we've got some lights that we got now, and we bought two big batteries so we can run the fridge and other appliances if we need."
For business owners like Rachel Demartin, who owns Pasta Press near Pearl Street Mall, it's creating major headaches.
"I'm stressed that I'm gonna have all this food in my fridge and that it's going to go bad — and that my team is going to be really stressed out trying to keep the fridge closed," Demartin said. "People need to eat. So if you close off all the power, even downtown, I don't know where people eat. It's a tough situation."
And it's because of this uncertainty Demartin feels there needs to be a change.
"I just think it's unsafe," Demartin said of the above-ground power lines. "There's a lot of trees in Boulder. There's a lot of old power lines. This is not a sustainable situation. Yeah, maybe in 1950 this was a great idea. In 2026, it's outdated."
The move to put lines underground is one many people welcome.
"I'm totally for being safe and being prudent around these areas," Chautauqua resident Tyler Fields said. "But it is, you know, having these wires above, I think, is really adding a lot of stress."
Chautauqua resident Dolph Kahle said she thinks the move would be "wonderful."
"I know there's expense associated with that," she said. But in the grand scheme of things wildfires are not something that's going to go away anytime soon."
For this story, Denver7 reached out to Xcel, as well as CORE Electric Cooperative for comment.
Xcel was unable to fulfill our request before our deadline, CORE issued the following statement:
CORE is monitoring the anticipated weather and plans to engage more sensitive circuit protection settings, known as alternate relay settings, in the areas of the service territory under a Red Flag Warning. These settings allow the devices protecting the line to trip when there is a fault and the line will stay off until the cause of the fault is determined to no longer be a fire risk. Alternate relay settings do not preemptively turn off any part of our system, but since these settings do not allow the equipment to self-restore power, there may be sustained outages instead of blinks during this time.
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