Question: When will my power be restored?

Answer:

We understand how frustrating a power outage can be. Our goal is to provide the most accurate information available while quickly and efficiently restoring power in a manner that upholds safe practices for both customers and utility workers.

Restoration Process

The Xcel Energy restoration process gives top priority to situations that threaten public safety, such as live, downed wires.

The remaining work is prioritized based on what will restore power to the largest number of customers most quickly. For example, by repairing a single high-voltage transmission line, often we can restore service to tens of thousands of customers at once, or by restoring service at the feeder level (see distribution system details), it may be possible to restore service to several hundred or a few thousand customers at once.

After we have re-energized the major lines, we can more effectively track down causes of outages along the lower-voltage distribution lines.

If we tried to restore service at the individual customer level first, we wouldn’t know whether we had fully solved the problem until we restored power "upstream," at the transmission level, and might be forced to return later to make more repairs

This method of restoration allows our crews to safely work on the distribution system.

Widespread outages:

During severe snow, ice and wind storms, electric service can be disrupted to hundreds or thousands of customers all at once. When storms disrupt power to more than 100,000 customers, it may take several days to fully restore power, depending on the extent of damage and how easily our crews can access the damaged areas. We must therefore approach large-scale restoration efforts on a strategic basis, using the restoration process described above.

Individual outage:

Our crews will assess the problem and proceed with the repair. As they communicate with our dispatching center, we gain a clearer idea of how long the power may remain out and determine if we can re-route power through another line to get you back in service faster. Our customer contact representatives at 1-800-895-4999 are happy to share with you any information they have.