Up to 43,000 residents in parts of Boulder and Jefferson counties should be prepared to have their power shut off Saturday afternoon, Xcel Energy said.
The power company said it was “planning for a likely Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) beginning on Saturday, March 14, beginning around 2 p.m.” in a post on its website, Xcel said the likely shutoff comes as high winds bring an increased risk of wildfires.
The National Weather Service in Boulder has issued a Fire Weather Watch for the Interstate 25 corridor and the northeast plains of Colorado from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. Gusty winds of 40-60 mph, coupled with low humidity, will create conditions in which wildfires could spread rapidly, forecasters said.
“Weather conditions are expected to start improving around 5 p.m. on March 14, though high winds that may create wildfire risk and cause outages are expected to continue through the weekend,” Xcel said in the statement.
Xcel on Friday released a map of the areas expected to lose power. It said it will reach out to customers who could be potentially affected by the preemptive power shutoff ahead of the event and will continue to monitor the situation.
The power company also warned that because of the high winds that are expected, power could get knocked out in areas outside of the planned shutoff zone, and that would impact how long it takes to get everyone’s power restored.
“Restoring outages from a significant weather event or PSPS may take several hours to several days,” Xcel said. “This is because crews must inspect power lines and repair damage before they can be safely re-energized.”
Xcel encouraged customers who could be impacted to prepare in advance, especially people who have medical equipment that needs electricity to function.
The power company on Friday was working to restore power across Colorado to a number of customers who lost electricity in Thursday’s wind storm. As of 7 a.m., there were 79 unplanned outages and more than 8,000 customers without power statewide, according to Xcel’s outage map.
Denver Gazette Reporter Matt Kyle contributed to this report.
