Boulder seeks feedback on power-reliability roadmap, including resilience hubs

Boulder officials will seek feedback Oct. 8 on a draft roadmap for improving power reliability, including options such as resilience hubs, backup-power support and closer coordination with Xcel Energy. Staff plan to bring a completed roadmap to City Council for review in early 2027.

The strategies are proposals, not approved projects or funding. The city’s forum packet says the forum is intended to help staff refine and prioritize options, not decide whether to fund or implement them.

The draft groups strategies into three levels. Core services include coordinating with Xcel on repairs, upgrades and burying power lines, as well as advocacy before state regulators. Possible service enhancements include preparedness training and alerts, community-led resilience hubs—including mobile options—and incentives or financing to help residents obtain backup power. Longer-term ideas include community solar and storage, neighborhood microgrids and additional funding for undergrounding power lines.

A city questionnaire available online in English and Spanish in July and August received 494 responses from 1,200 webpage visitors. Among respondents, 56% said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with electric reliability, 82% reported at least three outages where they lived in the previous 12 months, and 58% said they felt unprepared or very unprepared for an extended outage. The outage question asked about interruptions to respondents’ primary power even if they had backup power; these are respondents’ reports, not a measured citywide outage rate.

The city cautioned that the questionnaire was not representative: homeowners were overrepresented, renters underrepresented, and 10% of respondents were non-white, below the city’s share. The city also noted that people dissatisfied with reliability may have been more likely to respond. In a forced-choice question about Xcel, respondents split nearly evenly between continued advocacy through state regulators and using additional taxpayer funds to accelerate improvements such as undergrounding.

Staff plan to incorporate forum feedback and return to City Council with a completed roadmap in early 2027; the engagement timeline specifies February. The packet anticipates some early actions could advance in 2027 using existing or identified resources. It projects implementation beginning in mid-2027, while saying strategies that require substantial resources or new funding would need further analysis and Council consideration, including a go/no-go decision.