[August 24, 2011] EDITORIAL: KCP&L's blessing and curse Tweet Aug 24, 2011 (St. Joseph News-Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Kansas City Power & Light Co. carries both the blessing and curse of being our electric utility. The blessing is KCP&L is seen by many as a reliable partner with the community. Whether driven by enlightened self-interest or a true heart for civic betterment, or both, KCP&L can be counted on to support charitable causes and the future growth of the community through active efforts at economic development. In addition, we appreciate that the local work force is heavily weighted toward skilled laborers who climb poles, reroute wires and generally do everything they can -- even in the worst of conditions -- to maintain and restore power to customers. The company also appears to be managed better than its immediate predecessor. The last several days have been tough on customers who lost power, but we seriously doubt we would have fared as well under the utility's immediate predecessor. The curse is KCP&L is a utility -- one that has come to ratepayers for sizable rate increases in recent years to pay for its Iatan II power plant, updates to other parts of its operations, raises for its employees and a return to its investors. All of this at a time when customers have been in a financial jam with little new money coming in. For thousands, it's little solace KCP&L tries as hard as it can to restore service. They pay for power and they want the lights to stay on. In coming weeks, we hope to hear more from the electric utility on lessons it has learned from this violent round of summer storms. Specifically: --KCP&L pledged to do better than Aquila in trimming trees and holding property owners accountable for trees with the potential to bring down electric lines during high winds and storms. It's time for a detailed update. --KCP&L prides itself on investments in infrastructure, but local customers note seemingly every time they turn around this summer there has been another substation fire or failure. They want to know what to expect in the future. --KCP&L cannot be happy some customers lost power twice in the last few weeks for extended periods. Those customers are eager to hear what the utility thinks it might have done better or can do differently to avoid a repeat this winter. ___ (c)2011 St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) Visit St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Mo.) at www.newspressnow.com/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]