Xcel Energy customers face more outages and longer phone wait times. “We have a real problem,” regulators say.
Blackouts are becoming longer and more common in Xcel’s Colorado service territory, with 90,000 customers experiencing 6 or more outages in 2024
Kit Geary/ Summit Daily News
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity provider, is having increasing difficulty answering customer calls, sending out bills and keeping the lights on, according to two reports by state utility regulators.
Blackouts more than doubled in 2024 and customer complaints have jumped 100% in three years, according to a Colorado Public Utilities Commission briefing Wednesday on outages.
Outages have become more prevalent across Xcel Energy’s service territory which includes zones from the northeast, near Sterling, to Greeley, the Denver metro area, the San Luis Valley, the central mountains and Grand Junction.
In 2024 the average Xcel customer experienced 350 outage minutes, compared to an average of 166 minutes between 2014 and 2023, and more customers were hit with multiple and longer blackouts, according to a PUC staff analysis.
Read more from Mark Jaffe at ColoradoSun.com.
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