Author Archive for: KMEA

Tens of thousands of residents in rural North Carolina could be without electricity for days after gunfire seriously damaged two power substations.

The Saturday attack on the substations — located in Moore County, about 90 miles east of Charlotte — “wasn’t random,” said Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields. Someone drove up and “opened fire on the substation, the same thing with the other one,” Fields told reporters.

About 45,000 households and businesses remained without electricity Sunday, as temperatures were forecast to drop below freezing. The county declared a state of emergency, setting a curfew Sunday night and closing schools Monday. 

Joni Shadonix is celebrating her 25th anniversary with KMEA this month. She is also ending her career. Joni will be retiring on December 31st.

As temperatures on the West Coast soared into the triple digits in early September, power demand threatened to reach record levels — and utilities braced for grid problems.

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) warned of potential blackouts. Idaho Power Co., already hobbled by a pair of generator outages, prepared to cut power to some customers in Boise. Utilities in the desert Southwest expected surging demand to strain their grids.

But no major blackouts occurred during the multiday heat wave. The Pacific Northwest sent much-needed power to California, which in turn was able to send electricity to Boise. And desert states didn’t see dire conditions, allowing them to send power to California.

WELLINGTON, Colo. — In the farthest Denver suburbs, just off Interstate 25 stands a gas station called Kum & Go that doesn’t look like a battle zone. But it is.

One clue is in plain sight as you look around during the boring few minutes it takes to top off your tank. Plopped in the corner of the lot like an afterthought are four vertical red slabs.

They’re electric vehicle charging stations, capable of reviving an EV and its battery in about half an hour. It is no exaggeration to say they could be the most disruptive thing ever to confront that century-old fixture of the American roadside: the gas station. As more Americans drive their shiny new electric vehicles onto the highway and wonder where to go when the battery nears empty, charging stations are the agents of a revolutionary fill-up — not of gallons but kilowatts, not five-minute “stops” but half-hour “experiences” that could completely transform the tenor of the road trip.