Tag: Board of Public Utilities

BPU announces moratorium on electric cutoffs until March 31

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities today announced a moratorium on electric cutoffs until March 31.

The action followed an announcement by utility company Evergy earlier this week, and also pressure from community activists including Build Power MoKan, which held a news conference and video rally at noon Thursday.

After the activists mobilized, Evergy announced that it would put in place a moratorium on electric disconnections through May 2.

The BPU’s previous moratorium would have expired at the end of February, in a few days.

“We call on the KCK BPU to follow their lead, but that’s not enough,” said Ty Gorman, a representative of the Sierra Club in Kansas, at today’s Zoom rally.

During the video rally, members of the group called for the area utilities to turn power back on for those who have already been cut off previously; to offer more payment options with no fees; to add more people to the “medically necessary” list that would prevent disconnects for those using medical equipment; and to work with governors’ offices to increase programs for funding, weatherization and efficiency.

During the program, Louise Lynch, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident who had previously appeared at a BPU meeting to plead for a stop to the electric cutoffs, talked about her situation and customer experience with the BPU.

Her household of three family members, all of whom had jobs before COVID-19, came down with the illness and were unable to work. One is a senior citizen with medical issues who needs electric-powered medical devices, she said. However, the utility did not have his equipment on its medically necessary list, she said.

Lynch pointed out on Thursday that the recent rolling outages gave no notice to those who, like her family members, needed electricity to stay alive.

Last week, she said she received a $928 bill from BPU for two months, if not paid by March 1, would result in disconnection.

Lynch said she not only wanted a moratorium, she also wanted BPU to be accountable and give people relief. She wanted them to add her family member to the list of medically necessary customers who would not be turned off.

She said she was getting additional help from Catholic Charities, but now they have to take a video of her home in order for her to get any assistance.

“Many of us are struggling to survive,” Lynch said.

At some meals, she doesn’t eat so that her daughter, who has medical issues, can have a regular diet. And she has to decide which one of the family gets medication, which is not acceptable, she said.

“BPU and Evergy not only need to expand the moratorium, they need to give debt relief and cancel bills for people who are struggling like myself,” Lynch said.

“Shame on all of them,” she said, also mentioning political leaders and corporations. “Shame on the greed. Shame on fellow citizens who do not have enough compassion for those struggling.”

The BPU’s general manager, Bill Johnson, had mentioned at the BPU meeting last week that he was trying to determine what to do when the moratorium expired, but no action was taken at that meeting.

BPU spokesman David Mehlhaff said today the utility has been trying to encourage people to stay current with their bills during the pandemic, and most customers have been doing that. There are a number of bill payment plans available for customers, including ones that even out payments.

Mehlhaff said there are still relief funds available.

As for the request for BPU to forgive past debts and provide relief, Mehlhaff said that is not in the current announcement. He does not know if utility relief will be provided in the next federal stimulus package, which was being considered in Congress, but was not yet passed.

The BPU’s news release on Thursday stated that because of customers facing potential hardship from the coronavirus, the moratorium on disconnection for nonpayment will be extended through March 31.

The temporary moratorium includes residential and business customers, according to the news release, and utility disconnects will resume on April 1.

Any customers who have questions about their bills or customer service may call 913-573-9190 and a utility representative would be available to assist them, the BPU news release stated.

“As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread throughout our community, we will once extend our current moratorium on all utility disconnects,” BPU general manager Bill Johnson said in the news release. “It is important for us to continue to support our customers who are continuing to experience hardships during this time.”

Kansas residents can take advantage of the Kansas Low-Income Energy Assistance (LIEAP) program, which is accepting applications until Wednesday, March 31, according to the BPU’s news release.

To learn more about eligibility requirements or fill out a LIEAP application, visit the Kansas Department for Children and Families website or call 1-800-432-0043. LIEAP applications on the Kansas Department for Children and Families website at Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) until Wednesday, March 31.

According to the BPU, additional utility assistance funds may be available in mid-March through the Kansas Housing Resource Corporation (KHRC) and BPU will be letting customers know when these funds become available and how to apply.

If you typically pay in person, there are a number of quick, easy, and convenient ways for customers to pay their monthly utility bill remotely, according to the BPU.


These include:

  • On-line at www.BPU.com – available 24 hours a day, seven days a week using a credit card or savings/checking account. Available in English and Spanish, payments are posted the next day.
  • By Phone – dial 1-855-278-2455 (1-855-BPU-BILL), using a credit card or savings/checking account.
  • Auto-withdrawal – automatic check withdrawal allows your payment to be made from your savings or checking account on a monthly basis. Call 913-573- 9190 to enroll.
  • U.S. Mail – mail your payment to BPU at P.O. Box 219661, Kansas City, MO 64121-9661 in the return envelope provided with your monthly bill.
  • FlexPay – allows customers to monitor their electricity and water on an “as needed” basis, with services purchased on a pre-paid basis. There are no deposits and no late fees. Call 913-573-9190 to enroll in this program.
  • Self-Service Payment Kiosks and Payment Drop Box – available 24/7, just inside the BPU lobby doors located at 540 Minnesota Ave., KCK.
  • Grocery store Pay Site kiosks in the greater Kansas City area. Click here for a list of participating locations or call 1-877-876-7076.
    BPU has temporarily waived fees to use PaySite kiosks to make payments. PaySite kiosks accept cash and checks.

Residential customers who are financially impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak can set up payment arrangements by calling 913-573-9145. BPU is closely following the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines and recommendations on the steps it can take to help prevent the spread of the virus, according to the news release.

BPU will continue to closely monitor this situation and do all it can to protect its customers, employees, and the public, according to the news release.

Not quite out of the woods yet on power supply, according to officials

Residents still asked to conserve energy

While officials are cautiously optimistic about the power supply, they said today that Kansas and surrounding states are not quite out of the woods yet. Residents are still asked to conserve energy.

The power situation improved on Wednesday afternoon, with the Southwest Power Pool, a 14-state region, downgrading the energy emergency alert to Level 1. But then, at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, the SPP upgraded the alert to Level 2.

Later, at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, the SPP downgraded it to Level 1, saying there is currently sufficient energy to meet demands.

The SPP directed its member companies, which include the utilities in the Kansas City area, to issue public conservation appeals.

At the Board of Public Utilities’ 6 p.m. meeting Wednesday, Jerry Ohmes, manager of electric supply at the BPU, explained why power was in such short supply and how the BPU had handled the crisis.

Ohmes said the cause was the extremely cold weather that took place over the past week or so through the center of the nation.

“What really was suffering was natural gas,” he said. Natural gas was being supplied to generators and also was competing with residential customers and a lot of businesses using that resource, he said.

“They couldn’t get gas out of the ground because of the freeze-offs,” he said. “That’s really hurt the power grid.”

The same frigid temperatures made it difficult for coal and oil generation as well, when equipment is trying to run in the extreme temperatures, he said.

Before 2014, the BPU was its own balancing authority, Ohmes said, with its own power generation to offset its own customer demands. But that balancing responsibility was transferred to the Southwest Power Pool in 2014 for a 14-state region, he said.

The Southwest Power Pool has never had to use its energy emergency alerts, but they have had the mechanism to relieve issues with the transmission grid when capacity margin is compromised, he said.

Level 1 alerts dictate that all member utilities have all of their available generation online, and available to them, he said. Level 2 includes load management procedures to be put into effect, with public appeals to reduce the load. Level 3 is load interruption is imminent or in progress, with the mandated outages.

“We’ve experienced all three of those, moved forward and backward the past couple days,” he said.

Ohmes went over the timeline of events. At 9:19 a.m. Sunday, the SPP issued its first energy emergency alert, and all the BPU’s generation went online at that time, he said.

They escalated it at 7:42 a.m. Monday to energy emergency alert Level 2, and public appeals went out.

The BPU staff started calling key industrial customers in Kansas City, Kansas, asking them to reduce their energy consumption, he said.

Then, at 10:22 a.m. Monday, SPP issued energy emergency alert Level 3, and BPU was instructed to shed load, he said.

The BPU was told to shed 6 megawatts, he said, and it worked to find a breaker that would have 6 megawatts and not have a critical load on it. They made sure hospitals were not in these areas.

At 1:01 p.m., the BPU was instructed by SPP to restore the load that had been shed. Then they went to energy emergency level 3 until 2 p.m., and downgraded to Level 2.

At 6:21 a.m. Tuesday, SPP issued Level 3 again, and at 6:44 a.m. BPU was told to shed 13 megawatts of load, he said. They did so in 40-minute increments and cycles, he said. They felt that 40-minute segments would not make homes or businesses too cold.

At 7:17 a.m. they were notified by SPP to shed an additional 13 megawatts, for a total of 26 megawatts, Ohmes said.

At 9:32 a.m. Tuesday, SPP issued a restore order with instructions for the initial 13 megawatts, and they did that. At 10:07 a.m. Tuesday, they received an SPP directive to restore the remaining 13 megawatts.

Then at 11:31 a.m., SPP downgraded the energy emergency alert from Level 2 to Level 1.

But again, SPP upgraded the energy emergency alert at 6:26 p.m. Tuesday from a Level 1 to a Level 2. That continued to 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, when SPP downgraded it to Level 1, he said.

Ohmes noted that during the BPU meeting Wednesday night, he received another upgrade from SPP at 6:20 p.m. that the alert is now in Level 2.

“Where it goes from here is anybody’s guess,” he said. “We’re back to public appeals.”

Although they’re not through this yet, it looks better for the days ahead, he said, with temperatures getting warmer.

Ohmes said on Monday, SPP mentioned importing 6,000 megawatts from a neighboring interconnect, but on Tuesday, they were only importing 4,000 megawatts from neighboring interconnects.

Ohmes said a lot of facilities in the south were not weatherproofed for extreme weather. If they didn’t balance generation to load, the generation would be out of whack, and cascading outages could take days to restore if not weeks, he said. The outages of Monday and Tuesday prevented more serious outages from occurring.

BPU board members asked about staff preparation for a situation like this. Ohmes said they had a manual load shed plan if the need ever arose for it, but in the past, they had not had to use this plan.

Rose Mulvany Henry, a BPU member, wanted to know if the BPU could get the information out to customers faster, asking them to conserve energy. She thought the BPU needed to react more quickly.

Bill Johnson, BPU general manager, said when the emergency alert went to Level 2, the BPU started contacting industrial customers directly by phone to reduce their usage. A lot of them said there was only so much they could do. But one customer was planning an outage and moved it up a day or day and a half to help reduce the usage, he said.

BPU also contacted the UG and asked them to conserve as much as they could. The UG shut down a lot of operations starting Monday, he said. Some were already shut down for the Presidents Day holiday then, but they shut down further. Employees worked from home.

The UG employees continued working from home on Wednesday. The UG sent out an advisory on Wednesday evening that it expected buildings to reopen on Thursday.

Johnson said load-setting is a moving target and they don’t know where they’re going from day to day, sometimes not knowing within the day. He said there were some lessons learned from this experience and they will be having conversations on how to increase its technology to reach customers with the message.

Johnson said equipment does not always operate correctly, and that is why some customers’ power was off longer than 40 minutes. Across the city, breakers are sometimes slow to open and close, he said, because of the extreme weather conditions.

Ohmes said customers in the Armourdale and Barber areas had a power outage longer than the BPU wanted. Equipment malfunctioned and a breaker got stuck, he said.

Johnson told board members that when the BPU made telephone calls about the pandemic to all of its customers last year, it took three days to contact every customer.

The topic of the power supply also came up at the governor’s news conference at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Andrew French, chairman of the Kansas Corporation Commission, said Wednesday that although there was every indication there might have been additional power outages on Wednesday morning, they made it through the peak with the Southwest Power Pool having enough energy to meet the demand.

He said energy use on Wednesday came in lower than forecast.

That means conservation measures by Kansas residents and businesses are likely making the difference here from power outages.

Around midday Wednesday, French said the SPP sent out a message that the alert had dropped to the EEA1 level, two notches below calling for coordinated power outages, so they stepped off the ledge a bit.

He said he was still concerned about the possibility of power outages late in the afternoon and on Thursday morning. He asked residents to continue conservation measures.

He also said electric generating plants in Kansas have been running really hard for a couple of weeks, and if they lose major generation sources, they could have further interruptions in the future. As temperatures warm, the strain on the energy system will ease, he said.

He said he is cautiously optimistic but reminded residents they are still under emergency conditions.

The governor’s news conference, with Andrew French, is at https://www.facebook.com/GovLauraKelly/videos/179149120309819.

BPU to meet Wednesday

Update: The two closed, executive sessions have been removed from the agenda.

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3.

The virtual meeting will be conducted by telephone and internet. To reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19, the BPU facilities have been closed to the public.

On the agenda will be a time for public comments, general manager and staff reports, a COVID-19 update, setting a hearing date on a Kansas Department of Health and Environment resolution, utility bill pay options, miscellaneous comments, board comments, a closed, executive session on personnel and a closed, executive session on labor.

The KDHE resolution concerns a loan of up to $25 million from the state to replace the Argentine Reservoir at a cost of about $10 million, to replace aging distribution mains at a cost of $9 million, to build a transmission main from 90th and Parallel to I-435 and France Family Drive at an estimated $2 million, to do electrical improvements at Nearman Water Treatment Plant and pumping stations for about $1.5 million and to replace a 24-inch main at 12th and the Kansas River at an estimated $2.5 million.

The proposed public hearing date on the loan resolution is at 6 p.m. March 17.

The public may access the meeting through the telephone or through the internet.

On the internet, the Zoom meeting will be at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84523139724.

Or, by telephone, the public may call a toll-free number, 1-888-475-4499, meeting ID 845 2313 9724.

The board meeting information packet, is at https://www.bpu.com/Portals/0/pdf/board-information-packet-2-3-21.pdf.

Members of the community who wish to speak to the board must be logged in to the Zoom meeting via the internet using their browser or the Zoom application. Members of the public will be asked to raise their hand to signal they wish to address the board.

During the public comment section of the agenda, community members will be asked to provide their name and address and will then have 5 minutes to speak.

Members of the public may click on the “raise hand” feature at the bottom of the application to be recognized to speak, or may press *9 if connected by phone only.