DENVER (KDVR) — Xcel Energy is standing up an army of workers to respond to potential power outages that may occur across the Denver metro over the weekend. Depending on how bad conditions become, help might be needed from neighboring states.

Along with having employees on standby, the utility is ensuring the entire system is running smoothly going into the storm. Officials anticipate wet and heavy snow with the possibility of tree limbs breaking and damaging electric lines.

Xcel is encouraging residents to report outages when they happen because the system doesn’t automatically detect outages. Don’t assume someone else has already reported an outage, the utility advised. 

Residents are encouraged to have plenty of supplies and keep cell phones fully charged.

“We’ve also done outreach to neighboring utilities— utility partners in other states— to ensure that, if we need emergency assistance and extra assistance beyond those hundreds of staff and contractors, that we do have those available over the weekend and into Monday,” said Hollie Velasquez Horvath with Xcel Energy.

If outages do occur, you can visualize them geographically at the Xcel website.