Entries by KMEA

WAPA will serve nine additional Kansas cities beginning in 2024

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LAKEWOOD, Colorado – Eleven municipalities in Kansas and Nebraska and one military installation in Colorado have been approved to receive at-cost federal hydropower from Western Area Power Administration’s Loveland Area Projects starting Oct. 1, 2024.

It is the largest addition of WAPA customers since the remarketing of Hoover Dam hydropower in 2017.

“Many of the new customers, like our current customers, are small rural entities. Having access to the affordable hydropower resource and transmission services can be a real benefit,” said WAPA Contracts and Energy Services Manager Parker Wicks. “The federal hydropower allocation gives them access to an at-cost, reliable, clean energy source, and our long-term contracts assure that they will have access to this resource for a long time.”

President Biden signs bill provides public power with direct access energy tax credits

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President Biden on Aug. 16 signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will extend and expand various energy tax incentives and give public power utilities direct access to such credits through a refundable direct payment tax credit.

The U.S. House on Aug. 12 passed the IRA after the U.S. Senate passed the bill earlier this month.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the value of energy-related tax incentives to be worth $25 billion in 2022 alone. However, because public power utilities are exempt from tax, they have not been able to take advantage of these incentives for projects they own. Rural electric cooperatives face a similar challenge. As a result, using the tax code to incentivize energy investments has excluded utilities serving nearly 30 percent of all retail utility customers in the United States.

Transformer shortage hits utilities in storm season

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As the peak time for U.S. hurricanes arrives, utilities along the nation’s coastlines are facing unprecedented delays in obtaining new power transformers, the critical grid equipment that moves electricity over wires.

A lack of replacements could delay recovery from major storms, although the dimensions of that risk are not clear, according to electric industry officials.

When the American Public Power Association surveyed members at the beginning of 2022 asking how long delivery of new transformers was taking, the average was about a year, compared with an average three-month wait in 2018, said Corry Marshall, senior director for government relations at the association.

Midwest wind energy transmission line gets supersized

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The developer of a planned high-voltage transmission line from Kansas to Indiana yesterday announced that the project is being expanded in response to strong demand for wind energy from customers in the region.

Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, which purchased the Grain Belt Express project in 2018 and took over its development, plans to increase the line’s capacity 25 percent to 5,000 megawatts and boost its midpoint delivery capacity at a Missouri converter station fivefold to 2,500 MW.

3 issues to watch as heat strains the grid

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From the Pacific Northwest to coastal New England, millions of Americans have endured sweltering temperatures in recent weeks, driving record energy consumption and offering a snapshot of emerging risks facing the nation’s power system.

Beloit Seeks Power Plant Operator

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The City of Beloit Power Plant, Beloit KS, is accepting applications for a Full Time Power Plant Operator I/Mechanic. This position works directly for the Power Plant Superintendent. Duties will include, but not limited to, providing necessary skills, knowledge and workmanship needed to do related work for proper equipment maintenance, city vehicle maintenance and the operation of the Power Plant electric generation.