Agenda Memo

City of Boulder City Council Agenda Item Meeting Date: April 23, 2026

Agenda Title Power Reliability and Resilience

Staff Contact • •

Carolyn Elam, Senior Manager, Climate Initiatives Jonathan Koehn, Director, Climate Initiatives

Executive Summary The purpose of this item is to outline the proposed scope and engagement plan to develop a power reliability and resilience roadmap, which was identified as a 2026 City Council priority. Reliable electricity is foundational to Boulder’s safety, health, economic vitality, and climate goals. Over the past two years, however, the community has experienced a marked shift in both the frequency and impact of power outages. This change reflects the convergence of three forces: increasing wildfire risk driven by climate change, aging electric infrastructure, and evolving utility operating practices designed to reduce wildfire ignition. The intent of this project is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the investments Xcel Energy (Xcel) is making in its electric infrastructure, the effectiveness these investments will have on improving power reliability and resilience, and strategies that can be pursued to improve the community’s resilience to power disruption. With increasingly dry winters, more frequent droughts and increased severity of storms due the effects of climate change, the vulnerability of overhead power lines to extreme winds poses a material threat to communities like Boulder that abut wildland areas.

Energized power lines failing and igniting dry vegetation in high winds can lead to devastating wildfire. In response Xcel has implemented new operational protocols, including Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) and Enhanced Power Safety Settings (EPSS), which proactively or automatically de-energize power lines during high-risk conditions. While these measures reduce wildfire risk, they have also resulted in more frequent and prolonged outages affecting large portions of the community. Xcel conducted its first PSPS event in Colorado in April 2024, which had widespread impact on Boulder and surrounding areas of Boulder County. Also beginning in 2024, Xcel began to use EPSS and, as a result, since 2024, Boulder has experienced multiple wide-impact EPSS outages. In December 2025, Xcel implemented its second and third PSPS events on the 17th and 19th, respectively, and another impacting Boulder on March 14, 2026. At the same time, Boulder is experiencing outages related to aging infrastructure, equipment failure, and weather-related damage. Much of the system serving the community was built during earlier periods of growth and is now reaching the end of its useful life. These overlapping risks have led to outages that are longer in duration, broader in scale, and more consequential than in the past, impacting residents, businesses, and critical city infrastructure, and posing particular challenges for medically vulnerable community members and those without access to backup power. Looking ahead, these challenges are expected to intensify. Increasing electrification of buildings and transportation, combined with continued population and economic growth, will place additional demand on a system already under strain. While Xcel is working to harden and improve its infrastructure, the need is large and will take years to address. Additionally, work Xcel has planned will not fully resolve all of Boulder’s reliability risks. City Council identified Power Reliability and Resilience as a 2026 Council Priority. The goal of this effort is to develop a clear, data-informed understanding of: •

The current and planned investments by Xcel to improve grid reliability and reduce wildfire risk;

•

The near- and long-term risks to Boulder’s electric system; and

•

The roles, authorities, and strategies available to the City to reduce outage frequency, duration, and community impacts.

This work will culminate in a Power Resilience Roadmap that outlines a prioritized set of strategies and policy actions for Council consideration. These may include infrastructure investments, distributed energy solutions such as microgrids and battery storage, regulatory and legal approaches, expanded community resilience hubs, and targeted programs to support vulnerable populations.

Importantly, while the city does not own or operate the electric grid, it has multiple points of influence, including its franchise agreement, regulatory engagement, local investments, and community partnerships that can be leveraged to improve outcomes. Council direction at this stage will help shape the level of ambition, areas of focus, and policy pathways explored through this process.

Questions for Council 1. Does the proposed approach, including the proposed analysis and the development of a Power Resilience Roadmap, align with City Council’s expectations for this priority? 2. Are there additional policy actions or strategies Council would like staff to evaluate as part of the Power Resilience Roadmap? 3. Does council support the engagement approach as presented?

Alignment with City Plans and City Council History Sustainability, Equity and Resilience (SER) Framework and Citywide Strategic Plan Alignment SER Framework Goal Area Safe - Ensures that all residents are secure and cared for during emergencies and natural disasters. Public infrastructure is well-maintained and reliable. Plans for and provides equitable, timely, and effective response and recovery to emergencies and natural disasters. Builds and maintains resilient infrastructure to mitigate existing and future hazards and risks. Citywide Strategic Plan Strategy 2. Advance efforts to enhance regional disaster prevention, preparedness, and response that leverage existing partnerships and prioritize city investments. Strategy 9. Increase community and ecosystem resilience to the current and future impacts of climate change.

Alignment with Additional City Plans This project aligns with the City’s Climate Action Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan, as well as the City’s Franchise and Energy Partnership Agreements with Xcel Energy. It is also closely aligned with City Council’s priority on wildfire resilience, including the planned comprehensive assessment and analysis of current and planned City wildfirerelated programs, projects, and actions.

City Council History This project was identified by City Council to be a 2026 Council Priority at their retreat in January 2026. On February 5, 2026, council offered support of the project scoping summary as presented by staff. The purpose of this Study Session is to obtain council’s feedback on staff’s proposed approach and the final deliverable for the project.

Analysis The evolution of Boulder’s electric grid dates to the early 1900s when power was first brought to the community from the Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Plant. It continued to evolve with the addition of the Valmont Power Plant. The early placement of these generation facilities, as well as the nature of Boulder’s rapid growth in the 1920s and 1950s, set the architecture for what is today’s electric system serving Boulder. Because it abuts the foothills, is surrounded by wildland areas, and frequently experiences extreme winds, Boulder is amongst the highest wildfire risk communities in the country. Adding to this risk is the electric infrastructure that crosses these wildland areas to bring power to Boulder, some of which is more than a century old. With increased drought and weather extremes due to climate change, the risk of utility ignited wildfire has grown significantly. Beginning in 2024, Xcel began to modify how it operates its system during high fire risk. This includes the use of enhanced power safety settings (EPSS) that will de-energize power lines if a fault is detected and the proactive shutoff of lines ahead of extreme wind events referred to as Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS). To date, Boulder has experienced four PSPS events, and numerous outages due to EPSS. Xcel is making substantial capital investment to harden its system and to reduce the fire risk. This includes targeted undergrounding, rebuilding with stronger poles and covered wire, increasing the amount of safety protection devices and increasing use of fault detection. They have also adopted improved standards for vegetation management. However, it will take time to implement these capital improvements to reduce the need for PSPS and EPSS. In addition to wildfire safety-related outages, the Boulder community has also seen a rise in other types of outages with causes including wildlife, failures of substation equipment, underground cable failures and weather-related damage. The duration of outages has also increased as compared to historical averages because of increased inspection requirements and procedural changes by Xcel. Both the wildfire risk and the more frequent outages are indicative of an aging system. Boulder has now surpassed

all other Xcel-serving communities in terms our outage frequency and among the worst for weather-related outage and outage duration. Beyond outages associated with wildfire mitigation and equipment faults, there are rising concerns about the readiness of Xcel’s infrastructure to support future electrical demands from electric vehicle adoption, development, electric heating, and technology growth. Already capacity constraints on the system are impacting new construction and the adoption of solar in some areas. To address these constraints, Xcel has begun planning for rebuilding and expanding substations, adding new lines and upsizing equipment. The convergence of aging infrastructure, increasing wildfire risk, and evolving utility operating practices has created a step-change in outage frequency and impact. Without intervention, these risks are expected to intensify. In response, City Council adopted the Power Reliability and Resilience council priority to develop a comprehensive understanding the investments Xcel is making and plans to make in its system, and how those investments will result in a more reliable and resilient system. This information would be used to identify near and long-term reliability and resilience risks to the community and policy actions that council could take to mitigate those risks.

Project Plan Staff are proposing the project to consist of three phases: •

•

•

Analysis and Data Collection: Staff would work with Xcel to document planned and anticipated investments based on a 2-, 5-and 10-year timeline. Both in partnership with Xcel and independently, staff would conduct a reliability risk analysis to evaluate geographic disparities and opportunities. Community Education and Engagement: Community engagement would be employed to understand and assess community needs and capacity to respond during extended power outages. Community feedback would be used to inform and prioritize potential strategies and policy actions future councils could take to improve power reliability and resilience. In partnership with the Office of Disaster Management, and other key stakeholders, staff would support community preparedness through education and resources. Power Resilience Roadmap: The final output from the project would be a report that serves to document the results of data collection, analysis and community engagement, and a set of prioritized strategies and policy actions that could be advanced in future years to improve community resilience to grid power

disruption. Provided as an attachment to this memo is a preliminary draft intended to illustrate the framework for this final report. Analysis and Data Collection (in progress) Data to be collected and analyzed includes outage information for each power line serving the Boulder area and city critical infrastructure in unincorporated Boulder County, historical and planned investments by Xcel, and public and private resources to provide power backup and support during outage and other emergencies. The Racial Equity Instrument will be used to assess disparities and develop recommendations to advance equity and social justice for the power resilience roadmap. As illustrated in Figure 1, staff are using available data on Xcel’s system to outline discrete reliability zones. Additional fidelity will be added as Xcel implements sectionalization as part of its wildfire mitigation work. Each reliability zone would be characterized based on quantitative and qualitative risk factors, including outage propensity, vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity. For example, zones served by power lines likely to be part of PSPS events would have a higher propensity score than those whose power line is contained within the urban core. Similarly, residential zones with back-of-lot overhead lines would have a higher propensity than a recently developed commercial district with underground line. For vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity, zones would be characterized based factors such as vulnerable populations, economic vulnerabilities and access to resiliency resources such as backup power. Risk score adjustments would then be developed based on Xcel’s planned 2-, 5- and 10-year investments.

Figure 1 - Example reliability risk map.

Community Education and Engagement To drive development of the power resilience roadmap, staff drafted an engagement plan for 2026 that involves the community in: • Elevating wisdom and experience from within frontline communities already living with greater risk of wind, wildfire, and extreme temperatures; • Mapping related resilience efforts in Boulder led by community-based organizations, nonprofits, businesses and institutions; • Understanding remaining needs and concerns regarding power reliability; and • Developing and evaluating potential solutions to improve power resilience. Primary audiences include: • Frontline communities (e.g., manufactured housing communities in the wildland urban interface); • Areas of town where power reliability is particularly challenging (e.g., South Boulder and North Boulder); • Seniors and community members with medical and mobility needs; and • Businesses impacted by past power outages. Staff designed two primary engagement windows in 2026 to involve community in the process (Figure 2). The first set of opportunities this summer will welcome a broad range of community voices to understand the full suite of needs and opportunities.

Figure 2 - Planned power resilience engagement windows.

As the process becomes more focused later in the year, the second engagement window will involve a Community and Council Forum. Objectives for this forum include: • Responding to community desires to engage on council decisions sooner in the decision-making process. • Strengthening decision-making processes by hearing diverse community perspectives, from individuals and organizations who have valuable and perhaps underrepresented input, that could shape projects and outcomes.

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Identifying which Power Resiliency policy roadmap options are a priority for community, especially for community members facing a higher level of risk during a loss of power.

Power Resilience Roadmap To support development of the Power Resilience Roadmap, staff will evaluate a set of potential policy pathways that reflect the range of roles the City can play to improve reliability and reduce community impacts from power outages. These pathways are not mutually exclusive and are intended to provide a structured framework for analysis, community input, and future Council decision-making. 1. Grid Hardening and Infrastructure Investment Focus on reducing outage frequency and wildfire risk through physical improvements to the electric system. Potential strategies may include: • Accelerated undergrounding of distribution lines, including evaluation of costsharing models; • Replacement of aging infrastructure and targeted system upgrades in high-risk areas; • Increased sectionalization to limit the geographic extent of outages; and • Expanded vegetation management and right-of-way improvements. This pathway will include assessment of how the City can influence or accelerate investments by Xcel Energy through existing agreements, regulatory engagement, partnership and shared investment. 2. Distributed Energy and Local Resilience Solutions Focus on reducing the impact of outages by enabling localized, decentralized energy resources. Potential strategies may include: • Deployment of solar + battery storage systems for homes, businesses, and critical facilities; • Development of microgrids to support critical infrastructure and communityserving facilities; • Incentive programs, rebates, or financing mechanisms to expand access to backup power; and • Exploration of neighborhood-scale or community energy solutions. This pathway is particularly important for supporting continuity of essential services and enabling resilience during extended outages. 3. Community Preparedness and Resilience Capacity Focus on strengthening the community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from power outages.

Potential strategies may include: • Expansion of community resilience hubs to provide safe, powered locations during outages; • Targeted support for medically vulnerable residents and those with limited mobility; • Business continuity resources and support for small businesses; and • Public education, communication tools, and emergency preparedness programs. This pathway emphasizes near-term, community-centered actions that can reduce harm regardless of outage cause. 4. Regulatory, Legislative, and Legal Strategies Focus on advancing policy and regulatory changes to improve accountability, performance, and investment in the electric system. Potential strategies may include: • Engagement with state regulatory bodies (e.g., Public Utilities Commission) on reliability standards and utility performance; • Evaluation of legal strategies related to service reliability and risk mitigation; • Advocacy for state legislation to support resilience investments and community protections; and • Use of franchise agreement provisions to establish expectations and accountability mechanisms. This pathway will explore how Boulder can use its voice and authority to shape broader system outcomes. 5. City-Led Investment and Critical Infrastructure Resilience Focus on ensuring continuity of City operations and protection of essential public services. Potential strategies may include: • Backup power and resilience upgrades for critical City facilities; • Integration of resilience into capital planning and infrastructure investments; • Coordination with regional partners, including Boulder County and special districts; and • Strategic investments to support emergency response and recovery operations. This pathway ensures the City is leading by example while maintaining essential services during disruptions. 6. Equity-Centered Resilience Strategies Equity will be integrated across all policy pathways, with a focus on addressing disparities in outage impacts and access to resilience resources.

Key considerations include: • Prioritizing investments in communities with higher outage risk and lower adaptive capacity; • Expanding access to backup power and financial assistance programs; • Partnering with community-based organizations to co-develop solutions; and • Ensuring engagement processes elevate the voices of those most impacted. Finally, while specific costs will be developed through this process, potential strategies range from relatively low-cost programmatic investments (e.g., community preparedness) to capital-intensive infrastructure upgrades (e.g., undergrounding). Funding strategies and cost-sharing approaches will be a key component of the final roadmap. Equity Analysis Preliminary data indicate that outage impacts are disproportionately experienced by some [residents of manufactured housing communities, medically dependent residents, and lower-income households with limited backup power access]. This project will prioritize strategies that reduce these disparities by integrating the Racial Equity Instrument throughout the project to identify disparities in power reliability and resilience and to develop recommendations for policy action. Climate, Resilience, and Sustainability Considerations Boulder, like the western United States as a whole, is realizing the acute effects of global climate change in the form of more frequent drought, increasingly warmer and dryer winters and weather extremes. Already, Boulder has realized a near doubling in extreme heat days and a seven-fold increase in fire risk days. (see Table 1) The evolution of the electric grid resulted in the construction of hundreds of miles of overhead high voltage power lines running through forests and grasslands to carry electricity from where it is generated to city gates. While it has always been true that a spark from a power line could start a fire, the risk grows as the areas these lines run through become increasing stressed by chronic drought and disease. Similarly, it has always been windy in Boulder, but the strongest and most destructive winds are typically in the winter months. When poles snapped or power lines broke free in high winds in the past, there was likely also snow on the ground. Today, winters are increasingly dry creating the perfect recipe for wildfire. The intent of this project is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the investments Xcel is making in its electric infrastructure, the effectiveness these investments will have on improving power reliability and resilience, and strategies that can be pursued to improve the community’s resilience to power disruption.

Indicator (per year)

Historic Baseline

Today (Current)

2030 Projected

2050 Projected

6

10

28+

42+

96°F

57 98°F

151+ 10 101°F

168+ 12+ 103°F

16

116

192+

230+

Days over 95°F Average Drought Days Extreme Precipitation Events Heat Wave Peak High Fire Risk Days

Table 1 - Effects of climate change on indices of fire risk and extreme weather showing change over historic baseline and forecasted projections based on climate science. (source City of Boulder Climate Action Plan)

Community Engagement The engagement for this approach integrates all levels of the engagement spectrum. • •

• •

Inform: Information sharing and education will be used to enhance community preparedness to power disruptions. Consult: Community surveys and feedback tools will be used to gather information from the community on impacts of and best practices for power disruptions. Involve: Co-creation workshops will be held to identify strategies and solution to support adaptive capacity and community resilience during power disruption. Collaborate: Through the council forum, the community will be directly engaged in developing and prioritizing the strategies and policy actions that will serve as the final deliverable from the project.

Workplan Considerations This item is an adopted City Council priority and already integrated into the City’s 2026 Work Plan. Success of the project requires support from Xcel consistent with expectations outlined in the Franchise Agreement and Energy Partnership Agreement.

Next Steps for City Council Staff plan to provide an update to council through an information packet in early summer. A Study Session is scheduled for August 27, 2026, on the Xcel Partnership; representatives from Xcel will participate.

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Attachments Attachment A - Roadmap Framework and Initial Content