Power Outage Update

Last night, the City of Oxford experienced a power outage at approximately 9:30 PM. Our Utility Crew was immediately dispatched to investigate the cause and determine what needed to be done to restore power.

The crew discovered that a raccoon had caused a fuse to blow at the Evergy substation west of town on Highway 160. The incident also caused a power line to burn and require replacement.

Our Utility Crew reported the issue to Evergy and was instructed to wait for an Evergy crew to arrive, assess the damage, and provide a timeline for repairs. That information was needed before our crew could make the decision to bring the City's generators online.

While waiting for the Evergy crew, another utility emergency occurred east of Oxford involving contractors burying lines. Our Utility Crew was dispatched to assist with that emergency. Once that situation was addressed, our crew returned to town and began the process of bringing the generators online.

Because Evergy was able to reroute partial power to Oxford while repairs were being made, our crew had to bring the town back online in sections. Once the generators were operating, our Utility Crew remained with them throughout the night and into this morning to keep power available to the community. The generators allowed the City of Oxford to have full amperage of power since Evergy could only provide partial power. 

We are currently waiting for Evergy to complete the repairs at the substation. Once we receive word that repairs are complete and Evergy is ready to restore Oxford to their system, our crew will shut down the generators and Evergy will bring the town back online.

⚠️ Please be aware: The transition from generator power back to Evergy power is expected to cause another brief outage. We wanted to give everyone advance notice so you aren't caught off guard when that transition happens.

We sincerely appreciate everyone's patience and understanding throughout this outage. Our Utility Crew has worked hard all night long to keep the lights on and provide power to our community while this issue is being resolved.

Thank you to our Utility Crew for their dedication and hard work!