Power restoration may take until Monday as 150K Xcel customers wait in the dark [Video]

DENVER — Power outages may continue into Monday after more than 150,000 Xcel Energy customers lost service due to strong winds and preemptive safety measures by the company.

Of those 150,000, an estimated 55,000 Xcel Energy customers in Colorado had their power purposely turned off Saturday over wildfire concerns amid dangerous winds.

Xcel Energy de-energized more than 600 miles of power lines at 3 p.m. Saturday. The planned outage was initially scheduled to continue into at least Sunday, but now Xcel said that Monday is a more likely timeline.

In addition to the safety outage, at least 100,000 customers lost power when strong winds swept through the area, knocking down trees and power lines.

Xcel said on Sunday that crews were assessing the damage and would begin working to restore power in the impacted areas after the winds had died down. The exact outage restoration times will be contingent upon the extent of damages caused by the extreme winds, the company said.

The communities …