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Agreed this was confusing. It seems like the risk factors that would lead to turning off a neighborhood (non-buried power lines, exposure to wind and available fuels) should have been known and announced in advance.

I'm in Lafayette, and it seemed strange that our power was on when neighborhoods in Louisville and Erie were out.

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Yep, and pretty much the entirety of Boulder preemptively turned off, but not the areas south along 93 and to the east into Arvada near Rocky Flats, which are the exact super dry and windy areas where the Marshall Fire began.

I actually do think there must be some plausible explanation, but it's hard not to feel sympathetic to the people who are convinced it is a tit for tat by Xcel, targeted at people who have been involved in recent legal confrontations with them. There are good reasons they aren't being given the benefit of the doubt here.

I honestly worry more that truth is they were just winging it without any strong process or data with which to make the decision, and that this is their plan moving forward.

But the good news is that the PUC investigating what happened is the way to get these answers, and is exactly what Governor Polis is pushing for.

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