Evergy selects Kigen to strengthen grid resilience across private and public networks
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Evergy, one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the Midwest United States serving 1.7 million customers across Kansas and Missouri, has selected Kigen, a global contributor in eSIM and iSIM technology, to strengthen grid resiliency. By adopting Kigen’s secure eSIM OS and eIM solution, Evergy is unifying private LTE and public networks into an automated connectivity layer — creating a foundation for more reliable operations in the face of severe weather, growing energy demand, and the complexity of distributed energy resources (DERs).
Reliability is central to Evergy’s strategy, alongside affordability and sustainability. As utilities integrate distributed energy resources, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and dynamic billing, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity becomes critical. Severe thunderstorms, storm-related outages and routine network upgrades can all disrupt real-time telemetry that forms the “heartbeat” of a modern grid. Without automation, managing tens of thousands of IoT devices at scale would create unacceptable risks to both service continuity and cost efficiency.
Evergy’s LTE network already spans 100 sites, supporting thousands of IoT sensors, AMI, and operational technology devices. With expansion expected to reach tens of thousands of devices, failover between private and public networks must be seamless. Manual approaches cannot keep pace at this scale.
“As we modernise our grids, uninterrupted device data means visibility and preparation against outages from both the fast-changing energy transition and unpredictable severe weather. Taking control of our infrastructure requires network availability and automation is the foundation on which dynamic billing and AI can build. Kigen eSIMs and the eIM, configured to Evergy’s needs, enable us to set a new benchmark in grid resiliency—what has long been the holy grail of resilient, intelligent grids,” said Bill Franzen, Evergy’s lead radio engineer.
Kigen’s secure eSIM OS and SGP.32-compliant eIM solution give Evergy the flexibility to manage connectivity dynamically through eSIMs provisioned with multiple operator profiles. Kigen eSIM OS for IoT and consumer devices includes configurable features such as its network rescue and recovery applet, which enables dynamic, automated failover between private LTE and preferred public networks based on business rules. These operations are centrally managed through Kigen Pulse, allowing control at fleet scale—by geography, asset type or site—ensuring continuity of operations, reducing lifecycle costs, and supporting broader goals of capital efficiency, safety and sustainability.
Cybersecurity is paramount in critical infrastructure, Evergy’s deployment relies on the Kigen eIM hosted at its Dublin site, which is fully certified under the GSMA Security Accreditation Scheme for Subscription Management (SAS-SM). This site operates the Kigen eIM solution to the latest GSMA SGP.32 IoT eSIM specification, providing both assurance of compliance and trusted foundation required for secure, grid-ready operations.
“Building in dynamic automation for scaled failover and recovery, we enable Evergy’s vision to design for improved reliability, resilience and operational intelligence. As utilities navigate the energy transition, uninterrupted connectivity is the foundation for AI, dynamic billing and DER integration. With Kigen’s configurable eSIM OS and SGP.32-compliant eIM, utilities can take control of their connectivity and create the intelligent grids the future demands,” said Vincent Korstanje, the CEO at Kigen.
Kigen’s eIM solution has been named 2025 IoT Solution of the Year by the Mobile Breakthrough Awards. The company will showcase its solution at UBBA Plugfest and Enlit Europe, underscoring how utilities can confidently use eSIMs to build secure, future-ready networks.
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