KANSAS CITY, Kan. — During the hot summer months when temperatures can climb to the high 90s, power companies — like the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) — work overtime to make sure their customers have what they need to keep cool and avoid power outages.
BPU covers Kansas City, Kansas, and other parts of Wyandotte County. It serves 65,000 electric customers and 53,000 water customers.
"What we have in KCK is a very large industrial base, which is unusual," said David Mehlhaff, the chief communications officer with BPU. "So, we have a large General Motors plant (and) the KU Med Center."
Those spots take a lot of power, and it's up to BPU to make sure no one in the area goes without it.
Mehlhaff said BPU's monitoring system is staffed 24/7, 365 days a year.
"Making sure we have enough load to provide to all of our customers, all our customer classes," Mehlhaff said. "And then, they’re also in contact with the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and others to make sure they’re getting enough power on the grid, we’re having enough supply to our customers."
The Southwest Power Pool manages the electric grid and wholesale power market companies in 17 different states. It's clients include Evergy, Independence Power & Light, and BPU.
The two work together to monitor conditions and determine when there's a cause for concern. They rank it on the scale below:
Mehlhaff explained KCK is currently in a "Resource Advisory" stage, which means BPU needs to be cautious and continue watching the grid, but not necessarily alert the public. The only time they've seen the "Restoration Event," the highest on the scale, was during the polar vortex in February 2021.
"We’re a ways away from there," Mehlhaff said. "The reason why we’re really well positioned (is) because of our diversity of fuel mix, which makes a big difference, and also, we don’t have issues with gas resources this time of the year, like we would in the winter time."
That diversity is everything from wind energy, hydropower and methane gas.
"Good thing there’s been some pretty good wind out in the western part of the state, and we’re hooked up to wind farms there," Mehlhaff said. "That’s helping with our load and that makes a difference."
Mehlhaff said, really, the bigger concern is for the customers. High temperatures mean higher prices for air conditioning. For now, he said to not expect any rolling blackouts during the summer.
"We’re confident right now that we’re not going to end up with one of those once in a lifetime things, but anything’s possible," Mehlhaff said.
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