Boulder staff to brief Council on grid hardening; board told roadmap will follow

City staff told the Environmental Advisory Board that they will present a study session to City Council on April 23 to review grid hardening options after recent outages and safety power shutoffs.

The study session will summarize outage causes, review Xcel Energys wildfire mitigation plan and undergrounding investments, and analyze resilience strategies including undergrounding, sectionalization and microgrids. Staff said the session will also address equity implications and impacts on critical facilities and that a memo and background materials will be distributed to Council in advance.

The department is developing a 5-to-15-year policy roadmap that will identify where the city can act, where partnership with Xcel Energy is required, and where state-level regulatory intervention may be needed. Staff said the roadmap will return to the board for input ahead of further Council deliberations later in the year.

Board members were also briefed on a suite of upcoming agenda items including purchasing policy updates (June), air quality items (July), proposed changes to the Energy Impact Offset Fund (August), a Sundance sustainability briefing (September), and single-use plastics policy options slated for Council in November. Staff said draft 2027 budget materials will be shared with the board before September review.