A discount from Xcel ?

[sbg]

I’d much rather have the inconvenience of a power outage than suffer the tragedy of a forest fire. At the risk of sounding like a shill for a power company, I think Xcel’s new policy of shutting everything down during a wind storm and then walking the lines before turning it back on is sound thinking.

I agree that avoiding wildfires is vitally important. But that doesn't totally exonerate Xcel from doing better either. I'd like to see them have more people to check the lines faster and minimize disruption and for them to better maintain their equipment so that it is less likely to spark a fire. Recall that the Marshall fire started in grassland so it's not like there was a tree falling on the line.

And while turning electricity off can prevent fires, it can also stop one preventing them. For instance, if a fire starts, but you can't get water to put it out or call 911, because the electricity is out.

We are living in the 21st century in a supposedly advanced & technologically sophisticated country, but Xcel (and their counterparts in other parts of this country) seem somewhat obtuse to that fact. Maintaining an electricity system so that it works reliably without burning down vast tracts of land shouldn't be too much to ask.

One thing to bear in mind is that it may be more complicated than Xcel making a decision all by itself to keep the electricity off until the line is inspected. Their insurance might be telling them to do that since I'm guessing said insurance companies are on the hook for half a billion dollars for the Marshall fire and are probably far from best pleased about it.

Ideally Xcel would chose to fix this. It would require replacing lines with insulated "covered" conductors, better line sensors, or burying the lines. These solutions would all take time to install, so employing more line people would still be needed in the interim.