ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Xcel Energy is now reporting power outages could last beyond Monday for some of its customers.
"We could see an outage for the next couple of days," Regional Vice President Hollie Velasquez Horvath said.
450 Xcel crew members have been working to get the lights back on for 150,000 customers, 55,000 of which had their power preemptively shut off Saturday afternoon and 100,000 of those who were in the dark due to dangerously strong winds.
The outage was more than just an inconvenience for Lakewood resident Arthur Sanchez Sunday.
He had to charge his portable oxygen in his car while he waited for the power to come back on.
With his batteries running low, Sanchez decided to head to a family member’s house in the meantime.
“Aurora to my brothers, at least until I get word from the neighbor’s that the power is back up,” Sanchez said.
Velasquez Horvath said linemen prioritize areas with the most customers out and work down to the individual customer.
Crews first need to visually inspect more than 600 miles of power lines that were preemptively shut off before energy can be restored. And that is not a quick process.
“I don't think that we did a good enough job at making sure that our customers knew that it would take some time for the restoration,” Regional Vice President of Xcel Energy Hollie Velasquez Horvath admitted.
Englewood resident Lisa Duvall confronted Velasquez Horvath in her neighborhood on Sunday.
“That’s what the problem is. You don’t answer the phone calls,” Duvall said.
Duvall and many others are frustrated Xcel didn’t provide a clear estimate for when power would be back.
“At least give one of us some information about how long this would be… even if it is two or three more days,” Duvall said.
Xcel said there is no plan to compensate its customers for anything they have lost due to the outages.
Xcel said de-energizing lines will become the norm in extreme weather events, standing by its decision even though getting the lights back on is taking longer.
“I believe we made absolutely the right decision. We have damage on our electric lines. That is due to wind…if those lines were energized, that was a risk of a wildfire,” Velasquez Horvath explained .
If you did not receive a call about this outage, the company said it doesn’t have your updated contact information. You can make sure that’s up to date in the Xcel mobile app or on the company’s website.
