Hero
Report all utility damage
Why is reporting every incident so important?
Nicking a buried electric conduit can cause the cable insulation inside to degrade and eventually fail, resulting in power outages and electric shock injuries or deaths.
Even a minor scrape to the natural gas pipeline coating can cause deterioration over time. A pipeline that is pulled or bumped may break somewhere else, resulting in a leak that may go undetected. In these instances, the damage can lead to a natural gas fire or explosion that may injure or kill people and damage property.
It is equally important to report damaged tracer wire. If the tracer wire installed with plastic underground natural gas lines is broken or compromised during your excavation and not repaired, future excavators and the public are endangered because the line can no longer be located.
If you suspect a natural gas leak
Remember the three Rs of natural gas safety: Recognize, React and Report. If you RECOGNIZE any signs of a gas leak, REACT immediately by warning others and leaving the area. When you are in a safe place, REPORT the leak by immediately calling 911 and Xcel Energy at 800-895-1999 for electrical emergencies or 800-895-2999 for natural gas emergencies. In Colorado or Texas only, call 800-698-7811 for gas transmission pipeline emergencies.
Would you like to know more?
Additional overhead and digging guidelines, emergency procedures, case studies, instructional videos and training tools can all be found, at no charge to you, on Xcel Energy's e-SMARTworkers website.
COVID-19
Everyone's resources have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. You can help prevent located delays by pre-marking your proposed dig area in white and notifying 811 of your planned excavation with as much lead time as is possible in your state.

To learn more about Xcel Energy’s response to COVID-19, click here.
*To reach your state's underground utility locate service/one-call center, call 811 or visit their online site by clicking on your state's name below.
The required "business day" wait time for each state is as follows (excludes weekends and legal holidays):
 
 
811 Know what’s below. | Call before you dig.
 
GOLD SHOVEL STANDARD CERTIFIED
Xcel Energy is a founding member of the Gold Shovel Standard, which is a first-of-its-kind, two-part excavation safety program. The program both certifies an excavator's policies and procedures against the Gold Shovel Standard and publishes a score or rating known as an EICO™ score, which is an ongoing measure of an excavator's excavation-safety worthiness. It is a novel and ambitious program on a North American scale to dramatically reduce damages from excavation to buried asset networks. To find out more about the Gold Shovel Standard, please visit goldshovelstandard.org/industry/excavators.