Evergy Senior Vice President and Senior Customer Officer, Chuck Caisley, said late Tuesday afternoon that according to the multi-state Southwest Power Pool"we're not out of the woods yet" when it comes to the possibility of rolling blackouts to conserve energy. Approximately 270,000 people were without electricity for a period of time the past two days. There have been blackouts reported in the Junction City - Manhattan area during the bitter cold, including one in Geary County that lasted about three hours Tuesday morning.
Caisley said going into Tuesday night and Wednesday morning there is still extreme stress on the system. "We still have very extreme temperatures and we've got power plants all across this 17-state region that have been running flat at their capacity for at least two ( days ) and some times longer time periods. " Caisley added that many of the conditions present Tuesday morning to create the need for temporary emergency power reductions are still there, and the Southwest Power Pool said between 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday morning is when there is the most risk for additional outages.
There is still a need to conserve energy by doing such things by turning down thermostats, not using lights in some rooms and not using appliances in the early evening until as late as 10 p.m.