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Evergy

Evergy, Inc. is an American investor-owned utility (IOU) with publicly traded stock with headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, and in Kansas City, Missouri. The company was formed from a merger of Westar Energy of Topeka and Great Plains Energy of Kansas City, parent company of Kansas City Power & Light. Evergy is the largest electric company in Kansas, serving more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in Kansas and Missouri. Its more than 40 power plants have generating capacity of 16,000 megawatt electricity in Kansas and Missouri. Service territory covers 28,130 square miles (72,900 km2) in east Kansas and west Missouri. It owns more than 10,100 miles (16,300 km) of transmission lines and about 52,000 miles (84,000 km) of distribution lines.

Western Resources was the product of a 1992 merger between the two major electric companies in eastern Kansas, Kansas Gas and Electric (KG&E) of Wichita and Kansas Power and Light (KPL) of Topeka.

KG&E was founded in 1909 when the American Power and Light Company took over electric companies in Wichita, Pittsburg and Frontenac. Within a decade, it served over 48,000 people in 50 cities and towns. It also provided natural gas to several of the larger cities in its service territory.

KPL was founded in 1924, and quickly expanded across northeastern Kansas. In 1983, it merged with The Gas Service Company, a natural gas utility serving customers in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

In 1992, KPL merged with KG&E to become Western Resources, with KPL and KG&E as operating companies. The merger created one of the largest utilities in the Midwest, serving 560,000 electric customers and 1.06 million natural gas customers in three states. In 1996, Western Resources sold its natural gas business to ONEOK as Kansas Gas Service; this company is now part of ONE Gas. In return, Western Resources acquired a 45 percent stake in ONEOK; it sold this stake in 2003.

In 2002, Western Resources officially changed its name to Westar Energy, and all of its subsidiaries began doing business under that name.

Kansas City Power and Light Company was an electric utility serving the Kansas City metropolitan area. It was a wholly owned subsidiary, and biggest component, of Great Plains Energy.

In November 1881, Joseph S. Chick obtained the exclusive rights to use the Thompson-Houston arc lighting system in the counties of Jackson, Missouri, and Wyandotte, Kansas, for $4,000. In December, the initial franchise to establish an electric works in the City of Kansas, Missouri, was granted to Lysander R. Moore and later assigned to Kawsmouth Electric Light Company. Construction was begun in February 1882 on a power plant on a tract of land at the southeast corner of 8th and Santa Fe Streets in the West Bottoms. Kawsmouth Electric Light Company built quickly and, on Saturday night, May 13, 1882, brought electric illumination to the first 13 customers on the west side of Main Street in the downtown district. In 1885, the company reincorporated as Kansas City Electric Light Company.[citation needed]

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