Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Comment - 24M 0173E - 04 29 24
Comment - 24M 0173E - 04 29 24
Bettina 9:19 AM
Swigger bettina@downtownboulder.org via state.co.us
to eric.blank, Tom.Plant, megan.gilman, rebecca.whote, dora_puc_website, John
Thank you for the opportunity to give testimony to the PUC on April 17. Downtown
Boulder Partnership, in collaboration with Boulder Chamber and others, shared this
letter and information with members of Boulder City Council, Boulder County
Commissioners, and Xcel leadership. Please let me or John Tayer, President & CEO of
Boulder Chamber (cc'ed) know if you have any further questions.
Colorado PUC E-Filings System
We continue to have concerns about the continued impacts to the business community
when planned or unplanned outages occur in the future.
On behalf of the Boulder Economic Vitality and Business Support Alliance, we are
sharing our efforts to measure the impacts on the Boulder business community during
Xcel’s proactively initiated preventative power outages. We understand that you have
broad community impacts to discuss, ranging from caring for those with difficult health
issues that demand power service to the operation of critical infrastructure. We share
these community concerns, but this correspondence focuses on the impacts of the
proactive power outage on our local businesses, their needs, and future improvement
opportunities.
First, we want to be clear that our community is familiar with the devastation caused by
wildfires and appreciates Xcel’s attention to preventative measures. As a business
community, we are dedicated to cultivating an environment in which we are prepared for
emergencies. Public safety is paramount, and we are glad the April windstorm did not
cause any major fires. As Benjamin Franklin said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure,” and we understand that measuring the impact of preventing something
from happening is hard to see, and easy to question.
However, due to short notice and unclear communication from Xcel Energy, many
members of our business community suffered economic hardship when their
businesses lost power. Also of note, the impacts were significant not just for those who
suffered through the extended period of power outage, but also for those who were not
part of the planned outage, but lost business and/or unnecessarily took emergency
actions because they thought they would lose power.
To hear from the business community directly, we opened a survey on Monday, April 8,
and we are sharing with you the attached survey results. It is not a scientific survey, but
it is meant to capture the sentiments and immediate after-effects of the proactive power
outage. To date, the survey has received 96 responses. Survey respondents included
restaurants, retail shops, hotels, assisted living facilities, manufacturing companies,
research laboratories, nonprofit arts organizations, and others.
We note that many of these concerns and suggestions detailed in the survey responses
are applicable to both planned and unplanned power outages in the future. Of primary
consideration is early, clear, and consistent communication. We must give attention to
needs in that area in any follow-up strategy. Not knowing and/or hearing unconfirmed
reports and/or receiving late notice was the cause of much unnecessary business
hardship.
As you can see, businesses reported damage across the board, from smaller retail
shops and restaurants that lost product, but even more importantly, lost revenue during
what they anticipated to be a busy weekend. Larger businesses also reported significant
impacts – from lost productivity that led to overtime hours to the failure of equipment
caring for critical materials.
We are currently exploring all opportunities for bridge grants and loans to address the
costs businesses suffered. We also recognize that these resources are limited, and
many of our businesses are either ineligible for additional loans or understandably
resistant to further debt in the wake of COVID’s impacts and other rising business
expenses. That is exactly why it is so important that we avoid future communication and
response failures of this nature.
SURVEY HEADLINES:
The survey results also include ideas about specific strategies for reducing business
impacts that are in formulation and show promise for future implementation. All of this
points to great damage to our local businesses. We seek to collaborate with you in any
relief the City of Boulder, Xcel and our other business support partners can provide. At
the same time, we ask City Council and staff to work with us in implementing future
plans to avoid such calamitous consequences for our businesses from both future
proactive and unplanned power outages.
We all seek to enhance the resiliency of our community and this is one additional
opportunity for positive strides in that direction. We are thankful for the partnership with
City staff and City Council toward this shared goal.
Sincerely,
On behalf of the Boulder Economic Vitality and Business Support Alliance, we are sharing our
efforts to measure the impacts on the Boulder business community during Xcel’s proactively
initiated preventative power outages. We understand that you have broad community impacts to
discuss, ranging from caring for those with difficult health issues that demand power service to
the operation of critical infrastructure. We share these community concerns, but this
correspondence focuses on the impacts of the proactive power outage on our local businesses,
their needs, and future improvement opportunities.
First, we want to be clear that our community is familiar with the devastation caused by wildfires
and appreciates Xcel’s attention to preventative measures. As a business community, we are
dedicated to cultivating an environment in which we are prepared for emergencies. Public safety
is paramount, and we are glad the April windstorm did not cause any major fires. As Benjamin
Franklin said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and we understand that
measuring the impact of preventing something from happening is hard to see, and easy to
question.
However, due to short notice and unclear communication from Xcel Energy, many members of
our business community suffered economic hardship when their businesses lost power. Also of
note, the impacts were significant not just for those who suffered through the extended period of
power outage, but also for those who were not part of the planned outage, but lost business
and/or unnecessarily took emergency actions because they thought they would lose power.
To hear from the business community directly, we opened a survey on Monday, April 8, and we
are sharing with you the attached survey results. It is not a scientific survey, but it is meant to
capture the sentiments and immediate after-effects of the proactive power outage. To date, the
survey has received 96 responses. Survey respondents included restaurants, retail shops,
hotels, assisted living facilities, manufacturing companies, research laboratories, nonprofit arts
organizations, and others.
We note that many of these concerns and suggestions detailed in the survey responses are
applicable to both planned and unplanned power outages in the future. Of primary consideration
is early, clear, and consistent communication. We must give attention to needs in that area in
any follow-up strategy. Not knowing and/or hearing unconfirmed reports and/or receiving late
notice was the cause of much unnecessary business hardship.
As you can see, the damage was across the board, from smaller retail shops and restaurants
that lost product, but even more importantly, lost revenue during what they anticipated to be a
busy weekend. Larger businesses also reported significant impacts – from lost productivity that
led to overtime hours to the failure of equipment caring for critical materials.
We are currently exploring all opportunities for bridge grants and loans to address the costs
businesses suffered. We also recognize that these resources are limited, and many of our
businesses are either ineligible for additional loans or understandably resistant to further debt in
the wake of COVID’s impacts and other rising business expenses. That is exactly why it is so
important that we avoid future communication and response failures of this nature.
SURVEY HEADLINES:
The survey also includes specific strategies for reducing business impacts that are in
formulation and show promise for future implementation. All of this points to great damage to
our local businesses. We seek to collaborate with you in any relief the City of Boulder, Xcel and
our other business support partners can provide. At the same time, we ask City Council and
staff to work with us in implementing future plans to avoid such calamitous consequences for
our businesses from both future proactive and unplanned power outages.
We all seek to enhance the resiliency of our community and this is one additional opportunity for
positive strides in that direction. We are thankful for the partnership with City staff and City
Council toward this shared goal.
Sincerely,