Xcel Told of Potential Exposure to Texas Wildfire Damages

The leaders of Xcel Energy Inc. said Feb. 29 they have received a letter raising the possibility that one of its poles contributed to the Smokehouse Creek Fire raging across the Texas Panhandle.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Xcel officials said a law firm representing several property owners in the area has asked them to preserve a fallen pole belonging to Xcel subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Co. because it went down “within the vicinity of the fire’s potential area of origin.”

Smokehouse Creek Fire resources

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has grown and moved so quickly—it is now larger than Rhode Island—that some aerial reconnaissance efforts have been delayed by its intense smoke clouds. Here are some resources as of midday Feb. 29:

• An Associated Press story on the fires' development and damages

• The electric outages map from the Public Utility Commission of Texas

• Xcel’s electric outage map

• North Plains Electric Cooperative outage map

• The Twitter account for the National Weather Service’s Amarillo office, which is tracking a rain-and-snow system pushing through the region

• A Texas Tribune story cites meteorologists saying that weather system may not do much to quell the large fires, especially because Friday’s weather is expected to again be warm and dry

The filing also noted that investigations are underway into the start and cause of the fires in the region. Spurred by strong winds, smaller fires quickly coalesced mid-week to grow to more than 1.1 million acres and become the second-largest wildfire in U.S. history. Officials have so far confirmed that one person has died in the blaze.

As of 12:15 p.m. Feb. 29, an Xcel website showed 53 outages in SPS’ Panhandle service area. Combined, those outages were affecting roughly 760 customers. The other utilities in the area most affected, North Plains Electric Cooperative, showed about 20 outages (primarily in and near the town of Canadian) that were affecting more than 1,000 people. Both utilities had crews in the field looking to restore service and work with emergency personnel.

Shares of Xcel (Ticker: XEL) fell nearly 9% to $52.69 after the company’s SEC filing. As of Wednesday’s close, they had been essentially unchanged from six months ago; the drop since has erased more than $2 billion of the company’s market capitalization.