Boulder's power grid is facing a critical juncture, with the city's electrical infrastructure struggling to keep pace with the demands of a changing climate and a growing population. The story of Boulder's power lines is a complex one, with a history of piecemeal undergrounding and a grid built over generations, now under pressure from wildfire and climate change. As the city grapples with the challenges of a deteriorating electric reliability, Xcel Energy is stepping in with major undergrounding projects, but the question remains: is this enough to ensure a resilient and reliable power grid for the future?
A Grid Built Over Generations
Boulder's electrical system has grown incrementally, with new lines layered onto older ones, creating a complicated patchwork. This has led to a situation where neighboring homes can receive electricity from entirely different circuits, explaining why one neighborhood may lose power while a nearby block remains unaffected. The vulnerability extends beyond the city's borders, with lines serving city residents passing through wildfire-prone corridors.
The Reliability Gap
The reliability gap is stark. In 2024, Boulder customers experienced nearly twice as much downtime as Xcel customers statewide, with some neighborhoods now experiencing more than a dozen outages a year. This has contributed to a growing recognition that Boulder's electric grid, much of it built for a different era and climate, is no longer keeping up.
Xcel's Projects
Xcel Energy is moving forward with several major undergrounding and grid-hardening projects around Boulder, including burying a powerline near the city's wastewater treatment plant and advancing plans to move 5.5 miles of line underground along U.S. 36 toward Lyons. These projects address several weak points in Boulder's power system, such as lines that pass through wildfire-prone corridors and aging equipment that has contributed to repeated outages.
The Road to Resilience
City leaders say improving reliability will require more than burying powerlines. At the current pace, undergrounding Boulder's remaining overhead lines could take roughly 70 years. Officials caution that undergrounding is not a cure-all, with buried lines generally more reliable but outages harder to locate and repair. The city is developing a long-term roadmap to make the power system more resilient, including strategies such as distributed energy resources, community resource hubs, and backup power systems for critical facilities.
The Way Forward
The final roadmap will identify potential funding sources, including sales or property taxes, an increase in Xcel's franchise fee, neighborhood improvement districts, utility grants, and the reallocation of city money and staff. Public engagement is expected to begin this summer, with a focus on vulnerable populations. The council is expected to identify its priorities by the end of the year, but decisions about how aggressively Boulder strengthens its grid and how it pays for that work will fall to a future council.
In my opinion, Boulder's power grid is at a critical juncture, and the city's electrical infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with the demands of a changing climate and a growing population. While Xcel's projects are a step in the right direction, they are not enough to ensure a resilient and reliable power grid for the future. The city needs to take a more comprehensive approach, including strategies such as distributed energy resources and community resource hubs, to address the challenges of a deteriorating electric reliability.
