Rolling power outages have ceased for the moment, but area residents are encouraged to continue conserving in order to avoid another return.
The Southwest Power Pool ceased utilizing outages around 10:15 am Tuesday morning according to a social media post from Evergy.
Evergy Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Chuck Caisley is asking residents to still do their best to conserve energy through the afternoon and evening hours. He says the outages Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning were designed to help the Southwest Power Pool as a whole with energy providers in Oklahoma and Texas struggling with abnormally cold conditions.
Caisley says Evergy has had enough power to supply its customer base, which has led to questions about why there were any outages here.
Outages Monday ranged from 30 to 60 minutes. Outages Tuesday were as long as two hours, and several local customers say they dealt with multiple outages over the past 24 hours.
The process began after the Southwest Power Pool announced a Level 3 energy emergency — the highest alert stage it has and the first time the Power Pool had ever taken that step. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall credited residents for doing their part. He says energy as a whole has problems in this extreme cold.
Natural gas, meanwhile, has had issues because the well heads have frozen — meaning companies can’t pump the gas out and then distribute it.
Caisley says Evergy is still producing enough power for its customers despite several weather-related issues. Recent snow and ice has reduced the efficiency of the utility’s coal supply, wind turbines have had their own issues in the extreme cold and access to natural gas or heating oil has been limited and expensive.
If you are still experiencing outages, there are several ways to find out your status:
*Evergy customers can call 800-LIGHT-KS
*4 Rivers customers can report outages by using the SmartHub app
*Flint Hills Rural Electric Cooperative customers can call 620-767-5144
Once again, residents are still urged to conserve electricity through Wednesday, when high temperatures may finally get to around 20 degrees.
*Turn thermostats down to 65-68 degrees
*Avoid use of space heaters
*Turn off unnecessary lights and appliances
*Delay non-essential use of energy from washing dishes, drying clothes or bathing to non-peak hours between 10 pm to 5 am
*Use low-temperature cooking methods
For those who are having difficulty combating the cold, there are some options in the local community for where you can go to stay warm. The Lee Beran Recreation Center is being utilized as a warming station until 6 pm Tuesday evening. Additionally, E 24/7 Fitness, located at 622 Merchant Street is opening its doors for anyone who needs to keep warm until 8 pm Tuesday.
Lyon County’s 911 network went down around 9:30 am, possibly due to a power outage. Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy says complications could persist through the day even though 911 is back up and running as of 10:30 am. She says residents should call 911 if emergencies arise, but they should not hang up if calls are not immediately answered. She also says residents should avoid calling the non-emergency line if they are dealing with an emergency situation.
ValuNet FIBER was impacted temporarily as power outages caused several channels to lose their signal. Those have since returned to normal operations. ValuNet worked with vendors to restore service.
Stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media as this situation unfolds.
