A dark start in a new era of power delivery

By NewsPress Now

A sudden power outage gave nearly 30,000 St. Joseph-area electric customers plenty to contemplate one day last month.

Businesses and individuals with critical power needs were left wondering how long it would take to restore service.

Conspiracy theorists speculated on the possibility of a cyberattack, a scenario that isn’t far-fetched based on recent FBI warnings for utilities across the nation.

Students in the St. Joseph School District, who received an unscheduled day off, might have been thinking, “How could I get so lucky?”

And the general public wondered what could have caused such a large disruption on a day with no severe weather. Evergy says more than 70% of outages are weather-related, but last month’s disruption was attributed to a more banal source: equipment failure at a substation.

It was surprising that there wasn’t more redundancy in the system, but the public seems ready to move on now that the lights and the Wi-Fi are working just fine. The outage, however, serves as a reminder that Evergy can expect increased public scrutiny heading into the summer months.

All of Evergy’s residential customers in Missouri were required to switch to a time-based rate plan, meaning ratepayers will be charged more for electricity during the peak hours of 4 to 8 p.m. when power needs are greatest. The change occurred last fall, but the real impact won’t be felt until this summer when the hot weather hits and customers are tempted to crank up the air conditioning for relief.

There are a couple of points worth making on time-based rates. One, the outage last month had nothing to do with them. Two, Evergy at times seemed less than enthused about the change. In fact, the Missouri Public Service Commission required time-based rates when approving the most recent Evergy rate plan.

Finally, customers seem even less enthused. Many would prefer to make time-based rates optional. Some see time-based rates as another annoying example of surge pricing or, even worse, a regulatory attempt to force a green agenda on utilities and ratepayers.

Time-based rates only work if two things happen. One, customers have to become informed consumers and regulate their power usage by running major appliances during off-peak hours. Evergy emphasized this message during the roll-out last year.

The second factor has been less well publicized. By making electricity more expensive during peak hours, the new rate structure is supposed to even out spikes in demand and make brownouts less likely during summer afternoons.

Simply put, Evergy has to deliver power reliably to make the change to time-based rates worth the trouble. In addition, any utility company savings from time-based rates should be reinvested into system improvements that enhance reliability right now, not renewable energy schemes that pay off years down the road.

A major outage in the middle of the night, when power is supposed to be cheaper and more plentiful, is not exactly a confidence builder as Evergy embarks on this new era.