Ain’t nothing like a Colorado wind forecast to remind you who really runs your life: the weather and the people who pretend they can regulate it. According to The Denver Post, Xcel Energy is warning customers in Larimer and Weld Counties that certain areas could see power outages on Friday due to strong winds and dry conditions.
Reporter-Herald’s Sharla Steinman says Xcel is considering a Public Safety Power Shutoff beginning around 7 a.m. Friday, including parts of Loveland, Fort Collins, and Windsor, with a fire weather watch starting Thursday morning for wind and low relative humidity.
Xcel also expects Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings to be activated on Friday, meaning the lines may shut off power quickly if something like a branch hits a line.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Xcel Energy warns some Larimer and Weld County areas could lose power Friday due to strong winds and dry conditions.
- The company is considering a Public Safety Power Shutoff starting around 7 a.m. Friday, including parts of Loveland, Fort Collins, and Windsor.
- The National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch beginning Thursday morning for wind and low relative humidity in several counties, including Larimer and Weld.
- Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 40 mph; a fire weather watch has not been issued for Friday (that could change).
- Xcel says fewer customers should be impacted than last month’s severe windstorm that left nearly 100,000 Front Range customers without power, and advises customers to charge devices and prep an emergency kit.
My Bottom Line
Well, here we go again. Wind shows up on the calendar, and Xcel starts telling rate payers, I mean customers, they might have to sit in the dark because the wind might blow.
And yes, they’ll call it public safety. But let’s not kid ourselves about incentives. A publicly traded utility has one job in a situation like this: don’t become the next headline and don’t feed the trial lawyers. In Colorado, trial lawyers are damn near a protected class at the democrat controlled state legislature, so everybody else rearranges their life accordingly.
Meanwhile, while you sit in the dark, the Democrats in charge at the state legislature are back in session, picking energy winners and losers, pushing renewable timelines, and acting like physics is optional. Why? Vibes. Virtue. The base needs stirring, and the donors need their receipts.
Translated: regular families in Weld and Larimer get to pay more and prepare emergency kits so the political class can run experiments on the grid.
If your energy plan requires flashlights, it’s not a plan, it’s a brochure.
Xcel should communicate clearly and early about the exact areas at risk, and the state should stop treating reliable power like a luxury item. If the system can’t handle wind without flipping the lights off, the grown-ups need to fix the system, not just manage the press release.
Source: The Denver Post
