If you’re a Colorado homeowner, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the term “PSPS” for the first time in the last few months — and probably not in a good context.
In December 2025, Xcel Energy shut off power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses across the Front Range. Some communities went without electricity for up to five days. Pipes froze. Businesses lost tens of thousands of dollars. People who depend on medical equipment were told to go to the emergency room.
It wasn’t a storm that knocked out the grid. Xcel turned the power off on purpose.
These planned outages are called Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or PSPS events, and they’re likely here to stay. Here’s what every Colorado homeowner should understand about them.
A Public Safety Power Shutoff is exactly what it sounds like: the utility company intentionally de-energizes power lines in specific areas to reduce the risk of starting a wildfire.
During extreme wind events, power lines can be damaged by falling trees, flying debris, or the sheer force of gusts. When a line breaks or arcs, it can throw sparks onto dry vegetation — and in Colorado’s increasingly dry winters, that’s all it takes to start a catastrophic fire.
Xcel Energy began implementing PSPS events in Colorado in April 2024. The program mirrors what California utilities like PG&E have been doing for years, but it’s relatively new to Colorado — and the scale of the December 2025 events caught many residents off guard.
The December 2025 PSPS events were triggered by a combination of dangerous conditions:
Xcel Energy CEO Robert Kenney told Colorado lawmakers that the wind patterns matched those that preceded the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires in Southern California. The utility made the call to shut off power rather than risk a repeat of the 2021 Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County.
Two back-to-back shutoffs occurred:
The second event was larger because Friday’s forecast showed strong winds pushing farther east, and Wednesday’s storm had already damaged infrastructure, creating additional risk.
This is the part that frustrated homeowners the most. The wind died down — so why didn’t the lights come back on?
Before Xcel can restore power, every affected line must be physically inspected to confirm it’s safe to re-energize. Damaged equipment that’s not caught before power is restored can arc, spark, and start exactly the kind of fire PSPS events are designed to prevent.
In December 2025, the high winds caused widespread damage across the system — broken poles, downed lines, and debris wrapped around equipment. Crews couldn’t begin inspections until conditions were safe, and the sheer scope of damage meant restoration took days, not hours.
As Kenney explained to lawmakers: “Once the weather clears, we cannot immediately turn power back on.”
PSPS events don’t affect the entire Xcel service territory. They target areas where the combination of infrastructure, terrain, and vegetation creates the highest wildfire risk.
Xcel classifies areas into wildfire risk tiers:
Communities along the Front Range foothills — including parts of Boulder, Lakewood, Golden, Jefferson County, and Larimer County — are most likely to be affected. But as the December events showed, wind-related damage can knock out power even in areas that weren’t part of the planned shutoff.
You can check your property’s wildfire risk tier on Xcel Energy’s wildfire mitigation page.
Yes. Xcel Energy has been clear that PSPS events are a necessary tool for wildfire prevention, and the conditions that trigger them are becoming more common:
Xcel is investing in improvements to make future shutoffs shorter and more targeted:
But these upgrades will take years to fully deploy. In the meantime, PSPS events will continue — and Colorado lawmakers are pushing the PUC to establish stricter rules around how they’re communicated and managed.
If you live anywhere along the Front Range, preparing for PSPS events should be part of your routine — just like preparing for winter storms.
Colorado homeowners still have meaningful financial incentives available to reduce the cost of battery storage:
We’ll be covering each of these incentive programs in detail in upcoming posts.
Public Safety Power Shutoffs are Colorado’s new reality. They’re not a sign that the grid is failing — they’re a deliberate tool to prevent wildfires. But that doesn’t make five days without power any easier to live through.
The best thing homeowners can do is take control of their own energy resilience. Whether that’s a battery backup, a generator, or a full solar-plus-storage system, the technology exists to keep your home running no matter what Xcel decides to do with the grid.
If you’d like to explore backup power options for your home, Solar Wave offers free consultations to help you find the right solution — no pressure, just honest advice.
Solar Wave is a Colorado-based solar, battery storage, and generator installation company serving homeowners across the Front Range. We believe in transparent pricing, honest education, and systems designed to actually work when you need them.