Evergy battles equipment failures, downed power lines amid frigid temperatures (copy)

By Riley Funk

Evergy crews have been working swiftly against the extreme cold to tackle outages and ensure power stays on for St. Joseph residents.

There have been a total of 35 different outages in the Northwest Missouri area since temperatures took a sharp drop over the weekend.

“Most of them were fairly small numbers of customers affected by each repair. So a lot of times things like a transformer failing or a line down,” said Gina Penzig, director of corporate communications for Evergy.

Places in Downtown St. Joseph, including the post office and the News-Press NOW building, had outages Monday due to a switch gear failure, which Evergy worked to repair.

Some outages had bigger impacts, like in the Easton and Stewartsville area.

“We had a pole down that affected customers … that outage affected about 600 customers, some of them losing power for up to a couple of hours,” Penzig said.

Penzig explained that in winter weather situations, more staffing is made available to respond quicker to power outages across the area, although the cold means extra gear and layers for crews,

The good news for the roughly 50,000 Evergy customers in the area, the state of the electric grid is strong compared to its status during other storms that have passed through Northwest Missouri, like winter storm Uri in 2021.

“We aren’t facing those same conditions. While we are facing frigid temperatures and some equipment issues, power generation has been sufficient for the area even with increased demand, which is pushed by the cold temperatures,” Penzig said.

For those looking to maximize the heat in their homes while saving money, Penzig advises allowing sunlight to shine into rooms, but if the sun isn’t shining, close curtains to provide insulation.

“If you feel that air coming in, maybe find a towel or something to block that. It’s going to help keep your heated air inside,” Penzig said.

If customers are in need of assistance, they can reach out to Evergy via phone, app or online at https://www.evergy.com/.