LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Xcel Energy is proposing a statewide plan that aims to protect Colorado customers from "the increasing threat of wildfire" by building upon programs already working to minimize risks from electric equipment.
The 2025-2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan has been submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which still must approve it. According to those with the PUC, parts of the plan could be changed, modified, or amended throughout this process.
Xcel Energy is requesting the PUC's approval to invest roughly $1.9 billion into the plan over three years, which is intended to "expand the scope, pace and scale of our wildfire mitigation work."
Xcel listed the following investments and improvements that are part of their proposal as follows:
- Greater Situational Awareness: adding hundreds of weather stations to gather detailed information near power lines and equipment and tripling the number of Artificial Intelligence cameras for early smoke detection.
- Technology-Enabled Infrastructure Inspections: updating the schedule for pole and equipment inspections in wildfire risk zones, using inspections to create 3D maps of equipment and terrain in high-threat areas.
- Infrastructure Improvements: multi-year program to identify and replace or upgrade equipment, underground targeted power lines, replace and repair poles, and rebuild transmission lines in high-risk areas.
- Expanded and Risk-Informed Vegetation Management: accelerating and expanding efforts in high-risk areas, and setting new standards for inspections, clearance, and pruning frequency.
- Expanded Use of Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings: increasing the number of feeders that can be set to safety settings remotely, sectionalizing lines in order to impact fewer customers, and adding equipment in high-risk areas and new technology to improve the program.
- Public Safety Power Shutoff Program: providing enhanced interactive web maps reflecting outage areas, proposing a back-up energy rebate program, and reflecting the work already underway to educate, prepare, and support customers and to better communicate and coordinate with public safety partners.
- Organizational Growth: expanding our Wildfire Risk team to include further expertise in the areas of (1) meteorology and fire science, (2) risk management and analytics, and (3) dedicated outreach and communications resource for severe risk events.
The original plan was submitted to the PUC in June 2024. On April 21, Xcel reached a unanimous agreement with stakeholders on the proposal, one of which was the City of Boulder.
"We are very enthusiastic about this," said Carolyn Elam, a sustainability senior manager for the City of Boulder. "Xcel put together a really robust plan, we felt, when they filed it over the summer, so a large portion of our testimony that we filed was in support of it."
Last April, Xcel Energy shut off power for thousands of people along the foothills ahead of a windstorm. It was the first time the company had preemptively switched off power in Colorado. The PUC investigated the decision and considered recommendations to improve the energy company’s communication and notification practices when implementing these preemptive power outages.
Part of Xcel's 2025-2027 Wildfire Mitigation Plan aims to enhance the safety and transparency surrounding planned outages, including how they are communicated.
"Technology would be part of their investment, to reduce how many people they would have to shut off in the interest of safety during high wind events," Elam said about Xcel's plan. "That reduces the number of residents and businesses in our community that would be impacted while still keeping us safe.
Marshall Fire
Sheriff: Marshall Fire likely began as a result of buried fire, broken Xcel line
According to Elam, this proposal from Xcel is not explicitly related to the devastating 2021 Marshall Fire, which damaged or destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Superior, Louisville and Boulder County amid hurricane-force winds and extreme drought conditions.
Elam said natural disasters like the Marshall Fire do contribute to a better understanding of the threat of wildfires in Colorado.
"I think past efforts in wildfire mitigation have been smaller than this particular plan, but I think this plan is really appropriately responsive to what we've learned, again, looking around the Western States, from Washington, Oregon, California, as well as what we saw with the Marshall fire," Elam said.
More than a year after the Marshall Fire, in June 2023, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office announced the results of its investigation into the blaze. Investigators claim the Marshall Fire started as two distinct fires, which merged into one. The sheriff's office said the investigation revealed that one of the fires was the result of a disconnected Xcel Energy power line.
Xcel disagrees with that assessment, and in a statement, said the second ignition "started 80 to 110 feet away from Xcel Energy’s powerlines in an area with underground coal fire activity."
Adam Sloat is a homeowner who lost everything in the Marshall Fire. Sloat has since rebuilt his Louisville home, watching as the Coal Creek Ranch neighborhood slowly came back to life.
"One wishes we were not talking about changes in safety after a major fire, after a major disaster," Sloat said about Xcel's proposal. "One wishes these things were done a long time ago, before there were aging infrastructure when it came to utilities."
Still, Sloat said he would feel safer knowing changes are being made by Xcel Energy.
"Anything is a step in the right direction," Sloat said. "Anything that is about safety, when it comes to electrical and gas lines going to homes and neighborhoods, is a step in the right direction."
According to Xcel Energy, if the request is approved, "by the end of 2027, a typical residential bill would increase by approximately 9.56%, or $8.88 per month, through incremental bi-annual changes." Xcel claims its bills for residential customers would continue to be among the lowest in the country, even with that change.
A spokesperson with Xcel said that in 2029, they will "securitize much of the investment which will result in a decrease from the approximately 9.56%, or $8.88 per month."
The PUC is hosting virtual public comment hearings on the Wildfire Mitigation Plan. Anyone wishing to participate can register for the April 29 session online.
A decision is expected from the PUC this summer.
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