The plethora of power outages in Platte City were the focus of a meeting between Platte County Commissioners and Evergy officials this week.
The utility promised that changes are coming, including the cleanup and reconfiguration of the substation beneath the orange Platte City water tower. Evergy officials spoke at the Monday, Dec. 19 meeting of the county commission, held in Kansas City North. City and county officials were also heard from, including Platte City mayor Tony Paolillo, former mayor Frank Offutt and county director of facilities Daniel Erickson.
Evergy reported that in the first half of 2022, there were 44 outages in Platte City. In August, a tree trimming project was conducted in the city, with the power lines inspected. Since, to date, 33 outages have been reported, the bulk during storm season with outages trending downward toward the end of the year.
Evergy’s manager of public affairs Janet Waddell said Evergy was responding to the concerns.
“We have heard you,” she said. “We understand the reliability is not what you want it to be. We don’t want it to be like that, either. We are actively working on a weekly basis to improve it. Improvement takes time.”
Tree trimming was expedited due to the surge of outages in early 2022, crews walked the lines to inspect poles, transformers and other equipment with spot repairs made and some equipment replaced, a few more extensive repair projects are ongoing, as are plans to add infrastructure over the next five years.
Waddell brought senior manager Tim Jones so speak in detail on the utility’s plan of attack. Jones said he and other Evergy officials have paid attention to social media commentary complaining of service problems and hope to earn back the public trust.
Retired Platte County Economic Development Council director Alicia Stephens, a Platte City resident, asked Evergy officials to publish a timetable for planned improvements, giving the public insight into when and what to expect over the coming months and years.
Waddell agreed, and also agreed to come back to the county commission in the spring to give an updated report.
Jones said the substation improvements at the water tower will not only make the station less noticeable and obtrusive, but will also create some additional redundancy to provide for greater reliability.
Erickson said it was good to hear that the problem was being addressed, as power brownouts and blackouts cause additional wear and tear on county electronics and systems. The county is forced to fire up a large diesel generator at the detention center to keep operations going and the 911 system running and the elevators in the old courthouse must be checked for any trapped passengers. In the courthouse, power outages delay or cause rescheduling of court proceedings such as trials or jury selection.
“It’s a challenge for Platte City to represent itself as a great place to live when the infrastructure is impacted,” Offutt said, noting that water, sewer, internet and all the modern conveniences rely on stable electrical service.
Paolillo thanked the Evergy team for its response to the June storm that ripped through the city, “But I think that storm did most of the tree trimming for you guys.”
During his terms on the city board of aldermen, the downtown area suffered from power outages. That problem was addressed around 2008, but he said since the former KCPL handled that problem he has seen little improvement work done in the city.
“Why did we get this far again?” Paolillo said. “Why did it take us as elected officials asking why the reliability is so bad? Why does it take us to force the issue?”
He said Evergy should have noticed Platte City was suffering too many power outages and addressed the problem long before now.