navigation search kansas city power & light redirects here . for other uses see kansas city power & light disambiguation . this article does not cite any sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message kansas city power & light type public industry electric utility founded 1882 founder edwin ruthven weeks joseph s. chick l.r. moore william holmes headquarters kansas city missouri united states key people michael j. chesser ceo chairman william h. downey president coo revenue us 2.675 billion 2006 operating income us 235.42 million 2006 net income us 127.63 million 2006 parent great plains energy slogan energizing life website 1 the art deco kansas city power and light building was the former headquarters of the company and was the tallest building west of the mississippi until 1942 tallest in missouri until 1976 and tallest in kansas city until 1986 and is the namesake of the downtown kansas city power & light district . barack obama in front a kcp & l truck on july 8 2010 at the smith electric vehicles plant at kansas city international airport . kcp & l has bought a fleet of electric powered trucks from the company . kansas city power and light company is an electric utility company serving the kansas city metropolitan area . it is a wholly owned subsidiary of great plains energy incorporated of which it is the biggest component . the company traces its roots to november 1881 when 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 . the following month the initial franchise to establish an electric works in the city of kansas mo. 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 . in 1917 the company began construction on the northeast power station . in june 1919 the company reincorporated again 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 to this day . 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 . 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 . in a 2001 corporate restructure it became part of great plains energy incorporated . in september 2009 kcp & l moved into its new building one kansas city place at 1200 main in kcmo just 1 block west of kansas city s power and light district . the lease is going to be 23 years long . external links edit official site lehman brothers history of company retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kansas city power and light company & oldid 600209597 categories power companies of the united statescompanies based in kansas city missourinuclear power companies of the united stateshidden categories articles lacking sources from march 2014all articles lacking sources navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload 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