KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City area’s largest electricity provider says it’s taken pre-emptive steps it believes will insulate customers against extreme outages amid an anticipated hot summer and supply chain concerns.
In a release Monday, Evergy says it’s used the milder months in the spring to find alternate suppliers and products and has placed orders earlier than they have in previous years because of longer lead times.
While Evergy is a part of the Southwest Power Pool, a regional collaboration among power providers in the Midwest, other collaboration agencies, including the operator of the power grid in Texas, are taking similar steps.
On Monday, Reuters reported that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas was anticipating high power demand associated with steamy temperatures this week.
Chuck Caisley, Evergy’s senior Vice President and chief customer officer, says the company has been working in advance of the summer season.
“From the power plants that generate electricity to the lines and transformers that are key parts of the system, our teams are working to make sure electricity is available when our customers need it,” Caisley said in Monday’s release.
In the June, July and August Seasonal Temperature Outlook issued last month, the Climate Prediction Center put Kansas City in the part of the country that could experience higher than average temperatures.
In fact, the CPC’s outlook places nearly all of the country in the higher than average category, with parts of west Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah having the highest chances of above average temperatures.
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