KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, skyline downtown will “go dark” Monday night in an effort to conserve energy, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced.
Lucas tweeted Monday afternoon that the city is “actively communicating” with its downtown partners to turn off the skyline lights. City Hall's exterior lights also will be turned off, according to Lucas.
As part of Kansas City’s commitment to conserving electricity for our residents, we are actively communicating with our downtown partners and have requested that the downtown skyline go dark tonight. City Hall will also turn off all exterior lights.
— Mayor Quinton Lucas (@MayorLucasKC) February 15, 2021
Lucas said it's part of a “commitment to conserving electricity” after some residents throughout the Kansas City region experienced planned outages due to overwhelmed utility systems.
With the exception of signage (which likely stays on contractually), it’s a darker vista downtown tonight, including for the first time in a while seeing our Bartle Hall Sky Stations go dark and no exterior lighting at City Hall. Doing our small part. https://t.co/X6XxkwnwVt pic.twitter.com/oHUAoMFLeC
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) February 16, 2021
Utility companies in Kansas and Missouri, which are part of the 14-state Southwest Power Pool, began asking customers on Sunday night to conserve their usage due to the stretch of below-freezing days in the Midwest and the demand its created for energy.
Local utility boards echoed those calls Monday morning.
Among the ways residents can conserve energy are:
- Setting the thermostat between 65 and 68 degrees;
- Unplugging electronics that aren’t in use;
- Using large appliances between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
