ELECTRICITY PROVIDER INVESTING TIME, RESOURCES
Complaints about the reliability of Evergy electrical service in Platte City reached a boiling point last summer and resulted in a county commissioner asking for quarterly updates from Evergy officials about what is being done to correct the inconsistent service that in recent years has been plagued by outages, many of them lengthy.
At its first quarterly update of 2023 to the county commission this week, Evergy reported there has been a meaningful reduction in the number of outages, and significantly, the number of customers impacted in each outages for the circuits that serve the city limits of Platte City as well as some of the surrounding area outside the city limits.
Janet Waddell, senior customer solutions manager for Evergy, told the county commission that since December, there have been only three unplanned outages on the circuit that feeds the majority of Platte City, including the downtown area.
“We have seen an improvement in reliability,” Waddell said.
She said improvement work started more than a year ago and will continue over the next few years, indicating the company is about halfway through its planned list of improvement projects in the area.
“Evergy is making a significant investment in time and resources to address reliability issues,” she said.
Of the three unplanned outages, one affected 24 customers and service was restored by removing a tree limb on an electrical line.
The other two causes were unknown. One affected 14 customers and the other outage affected four customers.
“After patrolling lines for cause, crews were able to re-energize,” she said.
She said unknown causes can be transient causes that cannot be found upon patrol. This could include wind, whipping lines or blowing debris or branches making contact but falling away, leaving no evidence of cause.
On the circuit that feeds the rest of the city and immediate area outside the city limits of Platte City, Evergy had 10 planned outages to perform work and 20 unplanned outages.
Waddell said 16 of the 20 outages impacted five customers or fewer for each outage.
“In fact, seven of those 16 outages impacted a single customer,” she explained.
One outage impacted nine customers. Two outages affected 12 customers and one outage affected 19 customers, she said.
Causes of those outages were:
Vegetation caused four; wildlife (squirrels) was the cause for four; weather was the cause of one; and five outages where the cause is unknown.
In a report sent to the commission, Evergy says steps taken in the past 12 months in an effort to improve reliability on the two circuits serving Platte City and the surrounding area include:
•Rebuilding of the feeder backbone along Hwy. 92 south of Tracy.
•Rebuilding of feeder backbone along Farley Road south of Hwy. 92.
•Rebuilding/relocating feeder behind the Platte County High School.
•Rebuilding parts of feeder backbone north of Elm Grove Road.
•Replace/reprogramming five distribution line reclosers.
•Rebuild/replace more than 25 distribution poles and associated facilities inside Platte City limits.
•Completed tree trimming in Platte City.
VANOVER COMMENTS
ON EVERGY SERVICE
With Platte City being home to the county courthouse and county administration building, reliability of electrical service is an important issue for county officials. Joe Vanover, second district county commissioner, has led the effort to put pressure on Evergy to address the topic.
“The people and businesses of Platte City deserve reliable electrical service. For years Platte City residents and business owners have complained about power outages. We want to hear a report from Evergy that there were no major outages in the last three months, and we want to keep hearing that report over and over again,” Vanover said this week.
“We understand the power might go out during a tornado or an ice storm. But it’s hard to quietly suffer through power outages caused by light wind or a squirrel,” Vanover added.
“In recent years and because of COVID, many governmental offices have worked to take their operations online. But certain aspects must still be conducted in person. I continue to push to find ways to let people do business with government offices without having to drive to Platte City. Some functions of government can be done anywhere and a physical office is not needed. In my two years as a county commissioner, I have not had a physical space in a government owned building dedicated to me alone. The work of a county commissioner can be done in shared work space, on the phone, by video conference, or elsewhere in the community.”
Vanover added:
“This is important to me because of the years I worked as an assistant prosecutor in the Platte County Courthouse and the many times power would fail without good reason.”