Tag Archives: Evergy

Lightning strike blamed for fire and extended power outage in Fort Scott, Kan.

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FORT SCOTT, Kan. — FSFD was dispatched to Evergy’s substation north of town Wednesday afternoon for a lightning strike that caused a fire.

Crews set up a safe area and worked with Evergy to reduce any further emergencies.

“Lightning knocked out half of the Substation. Evergy does not have a timeline yet of when they will have it fixed and power back in that area. This outage affected the northern portion of town.” — City of Fort Scott

Temperatures were still hot and with nearly 5,000 no power the fire dept opened Buck Run Community Center, 735 Scott Avenue as a cool-off station for the community.

The hours were extended overnight, noting that cots were available at the center.

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About 11 p.m. the electric fire was neutralized. Authorities still request motorists and pedestrians stay clear of the area.

The city states, “It is unknown to Evergy what the timeline will be for restoring power.”

As of 1 a.m. about 1,500 still remain without power in the Fort Scott area.

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Southwest Power Pool requires area utilities to reduce energy consumption

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FOUR STATE AREA — The Southwest Power Pool is monitoring the usage for electric companies and asking some to do controlled power outages.

What does this mean?

It means Missouri and surrounding states have been using more power than there is available. Monday two electric companies were part of the controlled power outages.

Kelli Price, Liberty Utilities, said, “We are asking our customers to help us conserve energy so we can avoid this and its working so first of all a huge thank you to our customers.”

Monday morning the Southwest Power Pool issued an emergency alert level three — which means they were advising electric companies to have controlled outages. Liberty Utilities says they were managing the power shortage by cutting power to 3,600 customers for 50 minutes Monday.

“They required us to reduce load or limit energy so that’s where we went to our industrial commercial customers some of those to request that power be shut down so we could redirect energy.”

SPP has dropped the emergency alert level back to a two — but say that could change if energy consumption becomes high again. Monday Evergy also had controlled outages for 60,000 of its customers keeping the outages between 30 to 60 minutes.

Andrew Baker, Evergy Spokesperson, said, “We tried to make sure we were looking at circuits that didn’t have hospitals or emergency vaccines and we also looked at places where we could get power back on as quickly as possible. It was not clustered in any one community it was spread out throughout our entire service area.”

He says customers should be prepared in case SPP issues another alert.

“Make sure you have a communications plan in place. Make sure all your friends and family are accounted for make sure that your cell phone is charged. Battery operated flashlight in case your lights go out and battery-operated radio is very helpful.”

Both electric companies say the best ways to avoid future controlled outages is to start saving energy now. They are asking customers to avoid using large appliances along with turning off and unplugging computers, chargers, printers, and televisions when they’re not in use.

Kansas leads nation in shift to renewable energy

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FOUR STATE AREA — Three of our four states have earned notoriety for greatly reducing their carbon footprint.

Over the last few years wind farms like this one have become more common throughout the nation’s heartland. While this one is new in Southwest Missouri, they’ve been operating in the Sunflower State for several years, and are one of the primary reasons Kansas is ranked number one in the country for increasing their output of renewable energy.

Gina Penzig, Evergy External Communications, said, “They are looking for renewable sources of energy to help power those facilities, so being able to make that offer to be able to give them that opportunity to fulfill those goals just adds to the value that Kansas can bring.”

The survey, which was conducted by Filterbuy, shows Kansas increased the percentage of renewable energy between 2010 through 2019 by just over a whopping 500%. And Blake Benson says they aren’t just good for the planet, they’re good for business, in the form of existing Kansas based businesses looking to expand or those looking for a home.

Blake Benson, President, Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “Not only the environmental impact but hopefully the long term cost savings so certainly something that is of interest to young entrepreneurs and this obviously a ranking like this will only help.”

In fact, many businesses are now making sustainability part of their business model.

“Whether that be advanced manufacturing in Pittsburg or aerospace in Wichita, animal science in Manhattan and so I think this is right along those lines because Kansas has a long history with renewable energy especially in the wind sector.”