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Ameren Missouri one of few with no scheduled outages for customers during record-low temps

By Madison Parry

As the Kansas City metro and other areas of the bi-state region experience planned power outages from utility companies such as Evergy, Ameren Missouri customers have been assured their power will remain on. Ameren users have been urged, however, to conserve electrical power until further notice.

A large area across western Missouri spreading across state lines is experiencing power interruption – much of it intentional – from electric utility companies.

Image courtesy of Ameren

Electric energy providers such as Evergy, Independence Power & Light and more have began rolling power outages Monday and have announced plans to continue periodic outages Tuesday.

Ameren Missouri is one of the energy providers that has announced it will not be scheduling any outages for its customers.

Although the Ameren has assured customers they will not experience any intentional blackouts, similar to Evergy and others, they have urges consumers to restrict energy usage.

Systems for all providers are seeing an increased strain over the last few days as the region experiences some of the lowest temperatures seen since the 1980s. 

Springfield, Mo. was among other parts of western Missouri to have power shut off. Outages have even spread to the other end of the state, where some St. Louis customers are temporarily receiving no power.

The frigid blast of winter weather also spread into Texas on Monday, knocking out power to more than 2 million people.

The Southwest Power Pool coordinates a power grid in 14 states and has reciprocal contracts in a few others, coordinates electricity providers in the Kansas City area, including Evergy, the Kansas City, Kan., Board of Public Utilities as well as Independence Power and Light.

On Ameren’s website, it lists a number of ways consumers can immediately conserve electricity, which include:

  • Set your thermostat to 68 degrees or lower.
  • Turn your thermostat down at night while sleeping.
  • Unplug or turn off nonessential appliances.
  • Avoid using large appliances such as ovens and dryers.
  • On electric hot water heaters, reduce the temperature setting.