Nearly 200,000 homes and businesses lost power Sunday across the metro area after a transformer at an Xcel Energy substation failed, according to the utility.
The transformer, which failed just before 3 p.m. Sunday, damaged other equipment at the substation, causing an outage “that cascaded to include other substations,” Xcel Energy spokesperson Michelle Aguayo said. More than 195,000 customers were impacted, she said.
Most of the outages affected customers in the southeast metro area, but impacts reached as far north as Denver International Airport, where trains transporting travelers between concourses were forced to stop.
Transformers deliver power to homes and businesses by converting high-voltage electricity from power lines into a safe, usable voltage, according to Xcel Energy.
The outages impacted Core Electric Cooperative customers as well as Xcel Energy customers because the power grids are connected, Aguayo said.
Roughly 44,000 Core Electric customers lost power on Sunday, according to the utility’s outage map. The outages primarily affected customers in Douglas and Arapahoe counties.
The Core Electric outages were resolved by 5:15 p.m. Sunday, according to the map. The last Xcel Energy customers saw power restored around 5:45 p.m., Aguayo said.
Aguayo said the transformer that caused the initial outage is being replaced.
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