Explosion and fire at Evergy substation in Shawnee, Kansas causes mass outages
June 2021Published 19 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Shawnee, Kansas, Shawnee Mission Parkway and Lackman Road
- Operator
- Evergy
- What
- Explosion and fire at substation
- Cause
- Not reported
- Outcome
- Widespread outages, over 11,600 customers initially
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Evergy
What happened
An explosion and fire occurred at the Evergy substation at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Lackman Road in Shawnee, Kansas, in the Kansas City metro area, on a Thursday night in June 2021. The source gives this location in the article text, and gives 65th Street and Lackman Road in a photo caption. The incident caused widespread power outages, with Evergy initially reporting more than 11,600 customers without power and the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) reporting more than 9,000 affected customers.
The explosion also knocked out the Nearman Power Plant and three additional substations in Kansas City, Kansas, affecting the Rosedale and Central City areas. The BPU spokesperson said those substations were back online by 9.25pm. Outages were reduced to about 6,500 customers by 10pm and to 3,311 by 11pm. By 5.30am the following morning, Evergy reported 116 customers still without power and BPU reported six. The cause was not reported.
Contributing factors
Not reported. The source does not state what caused the explosion or fire.
Lessons learned
- A substation explosion can knock out connected plant and other substations, so operators must model knock-on loss of supply points in contingency plans.
- Staged public updates during substation failures show most customers can be restored within hours when switching options exist.
More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Exact cause of the explosion and fire
- Substation equipment model and age
- Total duration of outages and cost
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Other entries that name Shawnee
Published 2026-09-19. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
