History of Kansas City Power & Light
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.
Weeks spun off the Edison Electric Light & Power Company to meet residential demand. An electric war ensued when in 1883 J. Ogden Armour, heir to the Armour Packing Company, purchased the company on May 14, 1900, to power the Metropolitan Street Railway Company and Kansas City Electric Light Company. Under Armour, the company bought competitors and built a new power plant in 1903, providing steam heat to downtown businesses. The company focused on the trolley company and in 1911 it went into receivership. In October 1917, the company spun off the trolley business (which still controlled some power plants) and emerged from bankruptcy as Kansas City Light & Power Company with Edison Pioneer, Joseph F. Porter, as President.[4] Porter found the weakened company's most urgent needs were for more energy and more efficient plants. Thus, the company began construction on the Northeast Power station, the company's first modern generating complex.
Increased construction costs forced the company to reincorporate again, in June 1919, as Kansas City Power and Light Company. After acquiring the Carroll County Electric Company on July 29, 1922, the reorganized company became Kansas City Power & Light Company, adopting the ampersand and corporate name that continues. Armour sold his interest in 1923. Continental Gas & Electric Corporation purchased the controlling interest in 1924 and was part of United Light and Power until United dissolved in 1950.
Under Porter's twenty-one year leadership, the company prospered. Capitalization rose from $7 million to $82.5 million (or $160 million to $1.89 billion in 2025, inflation adjusted). Assured of a strong financial base, Porter ordered construction of the 32-story Kansas City Power and Light Building, which was completed in 1931 and remained the company's headquarters until 1991. Today, the building remains a prominent feature of the downtown Kansas City skyline and namesake for the Kansas City Power & Light District. In 1938, Porter resigned his position as president, though he remained chairman of the board until his death in 1942.
The Hawthorn Station, situated on the Missouri River, was started in 1948, and the first of two units were completed in 1951. Two other units followed and were fully operational by 1956. Kansas City Power became independent in 1950. It acquired Eastern Kansas Utilities in 1952. It was part of a consortium that built Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Burlington, Kansas.
On October 1, 2001, a holding company, Great Plains Energy Incorporated, was established in Kansas City, Missouri that owned electric utility Kansas City Power and Light Company and Strategic Energy, LLC, an energy management company.
It acquired Aquila, Inc. in July, 2008.[5]
In 2014, it ranked number 855 on the Fortune 1000 list.[6]
