FARGO (AP) -- Xcel Energy says thousands of Fargo-area customers who were in the dark for as long as 12 hours over the weekend won't be compensated for the loss of service.
Spokeswoman Bonnie Lund tells The Forum newspaper that outages happen occasionally because of nature or equipment failure, and compensation is considered only if the utility is negligent in some way.
More than 16,000 Xcel customers were affected by the outage that began shortly after 1:30 p.m. Saturday. That's more than one-third of Xcel's North Dakota customers. Service wasn't completely restored until nearly 2 a.m. Sunday. Lund says equipment failure was a factor in the outage but crews did not immediately determine the exact cause.
