KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You might have heard it’s going to be cold this weekend.
LINK | KSHB Weather forecast
With below-zero temperatures forecast for several consecutive mornings across Kansas City and the entire region, utility providers say they are monitoring the situation and ready to keep the power on.
KSHB 41 anchor Caitlin Knute spoke with Evergy spokesperson Courtney Lewis Thursday afternoon as the cold snap looms.
“We have the generation ready to meet the high energy demand that’s coming into this bitter cold weekend and we are able to meet our customer’s power needs,” Lewis said Thursday in a Zoom interview.
Evergy is one of several area utility companies that are part of the Southwest Power Pool. The SPP helps coordinate electricity generating capacity among dozens of utilities across the Midwest and matches it to customer demand.
The cooperation can be helpful throughout the year. For instance, if one utility has to take a power plant offline for maintenance, the SPP can look for power from another utility and send it to the territory of the utility performing maintenance, keeping the lights — and heat — on for those customers.
The SPP can also help during periods of high customer demand. If the northern Midwest is hit with a cold snap and other parts of the country remain warmer, it can send power generated in those areas to the areas it’s needed most.
Earlier Thursday, the SPP said it was preparing for “significant cold weather across its footprint.”
Officials estimate the scope of the arctic blast could approach those experienced in December 2022. During that storm, the SPP set its all-time winter peak load of 47,257 MW.
The SPP predicts a peak load of 46,000 MW on Tuesday, Jan. 16, with loads as high as 45,000 MW on Monday, Jan. 15.
“Utilities are on alert, but we are prepared to meet that need,” Lewis said. “We are at a high level of communication with the Southwest Power Pool in case anything should change.”
Compared to previous winter storms, Lewis says Evergy has stocked up on supplies of fuel oil and coal and has worked to firm up the ability to transport natural gas to its generation plants.
Bruce Rew, SPP’s senior vice president of operations, says the organization has also been working to “mitigate any risks related to maintaining electric reliability.”
“While there is always some degree of uncertainty related to weather predictions, we anticipate enough generation to serve the energy demand of the SPP footprint throughout the storm period,” Rew said. “We will continue to work closely with member utilities to evaluate energy adequacy and ensure reliability amid demand projections.”
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As for what power customers can do to stay warm in their home and maybe keep costs down a little bit?
“You can turn your thermostats to a little bit cooler temperature between the 65-68 range,” Lewis said.
If you are looking to keep costs down, space heaters may not be the most energy efficient way to heat a space, but if customers do need to use one, make sure they are used properly and turned off when not monitored.
Other tips include turning off any unnecessary lights and appliances when you’re not using them and to consider window coverings to limit drafts, especially in older homes.
If the sun comes out during the day, Lewis suggests opening the curtains and blinds of windows to let the sun help warm up your home, especially windows that face south. You can then close the curtains and blinds once the sun goes down.
Customers can monitor outages on Evergy’s website. You can also monitor the status of the SPP grid on their website.
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