Can you get compensation from Xcel for your loss of business revenue?

BOULDER, Colorado – When the power goes out, customers save money by not having to pay for electricity.

This is little consolation for customers who rely on electricity for their medical devices or whose businesses, such as restaurants, rely on electricity.

“We've experienced a number of extended power outages. No warning,” said Dakota Soifer, chef and owner of Cafe Aion. Soifer's restaurant is located on The Hill in Boulder.

The restaurant has been closed without notice at least twice in the last month.

“Recently they have lasted three to five [or] even more hours,” said Soifer. “Plus, they took place on Friday night. We completely lost all our business.”

On one of these evenings, his sous chef Nate Bingaman filmed himself by candlelight. Normally this is for ambience, but in Bingaman's case it was so he could see something while cleaning the kitchen.

“The impact on our community and neighborhood goes far beyond the complete loss of a day's revenue. For a small business like us, that's, you know, our rent,” Soifer said.

Xcel has a claim settlement process that must be submitted for possible reimbursement, but the criteria requires that Xcel acted negligently. The form also suggests that it only applies to losses not covered by insurance.

“Unfortunately, our insurance doesn't do that, and I'm not aware of any insurance that covers an outage for hours or weeks. We weren't closed for weeks, but that puts us in a really difficult position,” Soifer said. “At the end of the day, a small company just doesn't have any leverage against a company like Xcel.”

One of Soifer’s two applications from August has already been rejected.

He reported an email conversation with an Xcel claims adjuster. One of the investigator's responses was as follows:

“During high winds and heat, the system switches to wildfire protection mode to prevent fires if a power line is torn from a pole. I know this can be very frustrating, but it is necessary to prevent widespread damage.”

“It had rained the day before, so the atmospheric and climatic conditions that Xcel cites as an excuse clearly did not exist,” Soifer said. “The solution is not to simply keep the system on high alert when conditions do not require it, when it is raining, there is no wind and it is not 102 degrees. There is no reason to do that.”

He filed for damages not only for his company’s losses, but also for those of his employees.

“I think it was $7,000 or $8,000 in lost revenue, plus the loss of employees and lost wages,” Soifer said. “It's not millions, but for a small business, that's very significant.”

Early Thursday afternoon, 9NEWS asked Xcel for any available statistics on success/denial rates for claims in 2024 and perhaps even 2023. The data request also asked how often Xcel finds negligence on a reason not covered by the claims process. An Xcel spokesperson said he was unable to gather information on those questions by our deadline Thursday evening.

This story will be updated as Xcel provides this information.