Xcel Energy shares that they are continuing to monitor high winds that led to power outages Sunday in Texas and New Mexico.
A majority of customers currently without power – about 2,500 of the company’s more than 400,000 customers – were affected during the morning by a proactive de-energization of power lines. That step – a last resort, taken only under the most extreme circumstances – was focused on a limited area where wildfire danger has been the highest.
“A limited number of lines impacting less than one percent of our customers across our service territory were identified for de-energization because of the surrounding terrain and its risk of fire ignition, and the potential for damage to the lines from high winds. It is a step we take to protect the safety of our communities, customers and work crews,” said Adrian J. Rodriguez, president, Xcel Energy – New Mexico, Texas.
Additional outages have been caused by wind-related faults, including outages on lines where automatic power restoration features have been temporarily turned off because of wildfire danger. Typically, when there is an issue that causes a power outage on a line, such as a tree branch contacting a power line, equipment on the system will attempt to restore power automatically, usually within a few seconds.
Xcel Energy has temporarily changed the settings on those systems in many areas to prevent the automatic restoration of power, which could potentially cause the line to spark. Instead, crews are patrolling the area to ensure it is safe to restore service. This safety measure means power outages are likely to last longer.
Some service interruptions were expected to extend into Monday when stabilizing weather conditions which will allow Xcel Energy to safely re-energize any lines that were affected by outages.
“As wildfire risks continue to evolve, so do the tools we are using to protect customers, communities, and our work crews,” Rodriguez said. “We take our commitment to providing customers with safe, reliable service seriously. Xcel Energy appreciates everyone’s patience as we work to do our part to keep the public safe.”