BOULDER At its meeting Thursday evening, Boulder City Council approved sending a letter to Xcel Energy regarding "major concerns" it has with their partnership.For weeks, Boulder's City Council has discussed the three-page lett er, which reviews "whether the expectations set forth in the Franchise are being met, and whether we are realizing the vision set forth by the companion Energy Partnership Agreement."In the letter, Boulder leaders address several areas they are concerned with when it comes to Xcel.The first is "that Xcel failed to meet both the 2022 and 2024 emission milestones."The second area of concern deals with timeliness of advancing certain projects. The letter says the city acknowledges that "it can take some time to launch new ventures, but we also hear the frustration from our Community Advisory Panel about the absence of projects demonstrating material emissions reductions and from our city staff about some of the challenges they faced with, for example, the fleet charging infrastructure and streetlight acquisition projects."The third concern in Boulder's letter to Xcel highlights affordability for customers. The letter says "it is imperative that the financial benefits of the clean energy transition are shared with Xcels customers and steps are taken to address the insecurities many in our community feel as they face continually rising utility bills."The final concern is regarding recent public safety power shutoffs, or PSPSs. Boulder leaders told Xcel that "change is needed," and the energy company "has repeatedly fallen short as a partner in how these actions are planned, communicated, executed and reversed. Our community has now been subjected to three PSPS events, and each time the city experienced inadequate coordination, unusable or overly broad outage maps, insufficient details to support emergency preparedness, and extended outages impacting critical facilities, businesses, and residents." On Thursday, Denver7's Veronica Acosta spoke about this with two City of Boulder leaders: Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer and council member Nicole Speer."I thought the power shut offs were outrageous," Mayor Pro Tem Winer said. "If you don't know how to turn back on the power, don't shut it off.""I'm really glad this letter says exactly that, properly compensate those who have suffered monetary damage, that includes not only businesses, but people who cannot afford to lose their entire refrigerator full of food in the days that it took," Winer went on to say. Both she and Speer agreed they understand why the energy company shut the power off, but want more communication and alternatives for customers."I think we all understand that wildfire risk is a very critical piece of preparation we need to be doing in our city," Speer said."How are they going to ensure that it's as minimal of an area impacted as possible, that we are getting the power turned back on in an appropriate amount of time, not making residents and businesses wait for days and really, how are they communicating the events when they are going to happen, so that people can prepare?" she went on to say. "I think that has been one of the bigger sources of frustration and anger that a lot of us in the city are feeling is feeling like there is a lack of communication."Despite pointing out "major concerns," Boulder leaders also pointed to successes they've had with the energy company. Among them, some infrastructure investments.At the end of the letter, Boulder leaders requested Xcel take the following actions: Create a plan to reduce the number and impact of PSPS events Make substantial progress on hardening infrastructure, whether through underground or otherwise Properly compensate those who suffered monetary damagesThat's where those like Greg Lefcourt, who co-owns Beleza Coffee Bar with his wife in Boulder, come in."We were in the dark for 61 hours total, and we lost 100% of our sales the weekend before Christmas," Lefcourt said. "We're scrambling to try to figure that out right now. We haven't had an offer of any kind of relief from anybody at all. So, we're kind of left here as a small business to try to figure out on our own what to do when we suffer a $15,000 loss at a coffee shop."While Lefcourt told Denver7 he too sees why Xcel turned the power off during previous high wind events, he feels like there should be more communication and more partnership to come up with a solution."First and foremost, public safety is absolutely the No. 1 concern. So, wildfire is no joke in Colorado, so obviously No. 1 is public safety," he said. "No. 2 would be to have a better contingency plan in place ahead of time, instead of just telling the entire town you're turning off their power."Denver7 reached out to Xcel Energy about the letter on Thursday. A spokesperson provided the following statement:"We value the partnership we have with the City of Boulder and the hundreds of other communities we are privileged to serve here in Colorado. Xcel Energy is committed to providing clean, reliable, and affordable energy and we have a robust capital plan for energy generation, transmission, electric and gas distribution and wildfire mitigation. We also have several pilot projects aimed to meet the growing energy needs of Colorado now and into the future.We understand the impacts of using wildfire mitigation protocols such as Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). It is a tool used solely to protect public safety, and one we do not use lightly. We continue to refine our protocol based on community and customer feedback to ensure prompt communication, education, and awareness for all.We appreciate Boulders feedback highlighting areas of progress weve made and look forward to our continuing collaboration on shared goals. We are proud of the progress weve made together and in our commitment to continuous improvement remain focused on advancing shared priorities while balancing affordability and reliability for all customers." ...read more read less