News Releases

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 28, 2021 – Evergy is offering tips for managing energy use this week as high temperatures are expected. Keeping your home cool during July heat can tax your air conditioner. We have ways you can give it – and your electricity bill – some relief.

These simple actions can help:

• Close curtains or blinds to keep the sun and its heat out.
• Use a programmable thermostat so you reduce the cooling needed when no one is home, while staying comfortable when you are.
• Avoid use of heat-producing appliances like the washer and dryer, oven or dishwasher during the afternoon and early evening.
• Find more tips at: www.evergy.com/hotdays

Evergy expects to call energy savings events today and Thursday to help reduce electricity demand on potential peak usage days. Residential customers sign up to help reduce demand on the system by enrolling in Evergy’s Thermostat Program, and their home is precooled during these energy savings events to help keep the home’s temperature within 3 to 5 degrees of their original setting. Participants are notified in advance, receive a yearly enrollment incentive, and may opt out an event at any time. Events usually last about two to four hours in the afternoon and early evening and happen only on weekdays. Last year, Thermostat Program participants helped save nearly 60 MWhs of energy.

To ensure we are ready to meet the demands of summer heat, Evergy teams operating power plants and maintaining the power grid are working around the clock. Evergy power plants are available near their full capacity to ensure customer needs can be fully met. Teams at generation facilities completed maintenance work during the milder spring months to prepare for the summer season so plants would be available when needed most.

Evergy’s continued investment in power grid modernization and a robust predictive maintenance program keeps power reliable on hot days, making sure electricity flows from plants to the homes and businesses Evergy serves. Rebuilt lines carry power more efficiently and include monitoring equipment that can alert us to potential problems on the line before an outage occurs. In the case of an outage, they can make locating it easier, keeping the overall time it takes to restore power as short as possible.

Evergy is a member of the Southwest Power Pool, which coordinates generation and transmission in a 14-state region. Energy demand in the SPP area this week is forecast to be near its all-time peak. On Wednesday, SPP issued a Conservative Operations alert for midday Thursday through Friday evening. Conservative Operations alerts direct members to be conservative in their operations to ensure energy needs can be met. Based on current conditions, SPP has not indicated system conditions would result in emergency interruptions.