In the midst of a freeze, Hillsboro gets update
HILLSBORO—In the grips of the worst cold in decades, on Tuesday evening, Feb. 16, the Hillsboro City Council heard from Mark Chesney of Kansas Power Pool with an update on power and on the city’s power meter reader project.
Chesney said “a heck of a lot” of electricity is generated using natural gas, rather than coal, and gas prices rolled down to electric companies.
Chesney commented the prices of natural gas were “breathtakingly expensive,” while “the sport market price for electricity makes you swallow hard.”
While Hillsboro was not subject to one of the rolling blackouts across the Midwest, Chesney said cities that did experience blackouts had “very little notice. Some cities got between zero and five minutes notice before the power was interrupted and saw a duration of up to 120 minutes. This was not comfortable. It can be explained; it’s not at all comfortable.”