Note: After this article was initially posted online Kansas Gas Service issued the following statement Tuesday afternoon directing its large customers to reduce their gas usage: With extreme cold weather producing historic lows and increased demand, Kansas Gas Service has directed large customers to reduce their usage to ‘plant protection mode’ (lowest possible usage that will keep pipes from freezing and avoid damage to equipment) to prevent outages in Kansas. “We are planning for potential outages and putting measures in place to keep gas service to our customers and critical facilities,” said Sean Postlethwait, vice president of operations for Kansas Gas Service.“Our large commercial, industrial and transport customers play an important and pivotal role in helping the community avert a disruption in service.” This curtailment does not apply to schools, hospitals, health care facilities, hotels or lodging facilities, grocery stores, universities, colleges, churches, public safety buildings, multi-family dwellings and apartments. “Following our regulatory obligations under our curtailment plan, an initial critical step is to take measures to seek assistancefrom our large commercial and industrial and transport customers to help avoid disruptions,” said Postlethwait.