Kansas City-area utility companies say they’re ready for next winter blast
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – From a winter storm that dumped several inches of snow on Tuesday to a blast of arctic air in the forecast, winter has finally arrived in the Kansas City metro.
As of Thursday night, the FOX4 Weather Team predicts that we will struggle to get above freezing for the next four to five days, a stretch that’s reminiscent of the brutal February 2021 storm which saw utility companies like Evergy perform controlled outages.
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“We’re not even talking about rolling blackouts or anything right now because we have enough energy to go into the weekend and meet the demand,” said Evergy spokesperson Courtney Lewis on Thursday afternoon.
If there are any controlled outages, she said Evergy would only do those if directed by the Southwest Power Pool.
The SPP manages the electric grid for 14 states, including all of Kansas and western Missouri. It also oversees part of Texas, which experienced a catastrophic grid failure in 2021.
However, that blame fell on ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas), which provides energy to more than half of the Lone Star State.
More than 200 people died as a result of that storm from causes ranging from hypothermia to carbon monoxide poisoning, according to reporting from The Texas Tribune.
Keeping your home prepared for extreme cold temperatures
Still, the Southwest Power Pool asked Evergy to perform controlled outages in 2021, outages that lasted no more than a couple of hours in order to deal with its own demand pressures. In light of that, Lewis said Evergy made changes to ensure a smoother operation for future storms.
Besides keeping more fuel storage at its generation plants, Evergy also keeps more fuel oil and coal on hand.
“We have also increased our ability to transport natural gas to our generation plants so we can get resources there quicker,” added Lewis. “We’ve [also] acquired the Persimmon Creek Wind Farm from Oklahoma and the Jeffrey Energy Center near Saint Marys, Kansas, [which is] providing more resources and more generation.”
To prepare for next week’s arctic air, Evergy has contracted crews on standby with extra staff monitoring sub stations and generation plants, something it did earlier this week with Tuesday’s snowstorm.
As for what you can do to conserve energy next week, Lewis has the following tips:
Unplug any appliances you aren’t using
Seal drafty windows and doors
Adjust your thermostat in the 65-68 degree range
“That makes a big difference in terms of demand on the grid,” Lewis said.
Joe’s Blog: A blizzard + arctic air…KC gets one (THU-1/11)
Keep in mind the power grid is huge with thousands of moving parts. With this latest system rolling in on Saturday, Evergy expects that some of its customers will likely see outages.
If that’s the case, the company asks you to report it and be patient as crews work to resolve the issue.
