Affordable. Reliable. Renewable.

Evergy wants to be Pittsburg’s energy partner and remains committed to the Pittsburg community. For more than 110 years we’ve powered the community with safe, reliable energy.

Pittsburg city leaders are studying the possibility of purchasing the Evergy (formerly Westar) power grid in Pittsburg to form a city-owned electric utility. We promised to be transparent and have provided and continue to provide any information we can to help them make an informed decision. In addition to providing the city information for their study, we contracted a nationally recognized firm to estimate the cost of municipalization. That firm used the criteria that Kansas law requires for the purchase and estimated the cost to be about $130 million. This includes payment for the work to separate the electrical grid that serves the city from that serving surrounding Evergy customers, purchase of the grid within the city and related costs.

If Pittsburg decides to form a municipal utility, Kansas law determines fair value for the city’s electrical grid and outlines reliability requirements. Under that law, the city must develop a plan to pay for and purchase the existing system and then operate it to serve you. Our responsibility is to make sure any transaction is fair to our remaining customers and doesn’t affect their reliability.

View: City of Pittsburg, Kansas Municipalization Preliminary Feasibility Study

What do customers think?

We also wanted to know what our customers in Pittsburg think of our service and of municipalization. We contracted Remington Research Group, a nationally recognized research firm, to survey residents.* We shared the results with the city, too. Here are some highlights from that poll:

• 77% of Pittsburg residents has a favorable view of Westar (soon to be Evergy)
• 78% have a favorable view of our reliability Learning that about half of the power supplied to homes and businesses we serve is carbon free was favorable to 82% of those surveyed.
• Of those polled, 71% were against municipalization and 69% expected it would lead to higher prices.
• If municipalization is put to a vote, 80% said that citizens of Pittsburg – not just the city commissioners – should get to vote on the issue.

*Poll was conducted Sept. 9-10, 2019, and 381 Pittsburg residents participated, which is the appropriate sample size to make it statistically valid. It has a margin of error of +/-5%.

View: Pittsburg, Kansas Research Survey

Lower, stable rates

• After years of rate stability, in 2007 we started investing in infrastructure to reduce emissions, strengthen our state’s power grid and add renewable energy. These investments contributed to rising prices for about a decade.
• In 2018, we merged with our neighbor KCP&L to form Evergy. As a combined company, we reduced rates and committed to not raise Kansas base rates for five years after the merger.
• We’ve already provided bill credits and anticipate returning more than $75 million in bill credits to our Kansas customers thanks to efficiencies we’re gaining through our merger.
• As a combined company we have achieved more than $150 million in savings, which will help stabilize prices for all of our customers.

Power on

For the past five years, Pittsburg’s average electric service reliability metrics have been among the best, compared to national industry standards. From 2010-2021, we’ll invest about $94 million in Pittsburg’s infrastructure, which will contribute to strong reliability going forward.

Breathe easier

Because of our renewable and environmental investments:

• Half of the energy we provide to homes and businesses now comes from emission-free sources.
• That percentage continues to climb as we invest in Kansas wind, the most cost-effective source of renewable energy for our state.

Trusted community partners

We have 27 employees who live and work in the Pittsburg area. They serve on non-profit boards. They help finance and build community projects. In fact, over the past three years:

• Employees and the Westar Energy Foundation donated more than $125,000 to the Pittsburg community.
• Employees volunteered for organizations like the KS Food Bank, Pittsburg State University, Back to School Haircut Event, Colonial Fox Theatre Foundation, Project 17-Together We Succeed, K-State Research Wildcat Extension District, SEK INC., Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, JL Hutchinson Baseball League and Communities in Schools.

We help local business thrive. Access to renewable power and affordable rates helped bring in more than $4.3 billion in industrial investments to Kansas since 2010.