As part of the Department of Energy’s goal to improve grid resilience the Kansas Corporation Commission has received a grant for small utilities to apply for. The primary goal of the program is to demonstrate measurable improvements in energy resilience, with a focus to necessary and supporting grid modernization investments in rural, underserved, and disadvantaged communities, to invest in modernized grid infrastructure and to create good-paying jobs.
On October 23rd the city of Oberlin took delivery of two new CAT C175 3.0 MW engines. This marks the first delivery of equipment under KMEA’s new financing program. These engines will replace the city’s current, outdated generation. In addition to providing Oberlin with easy-to-run, reliable generation that will serve the community in time of need for many years to come, they also help the city meet its Southwest Power Pool capacity requirement .
The KMEA financing program is aimed to give cities an option when a large, capital-intensive project, like the purchase of new generation, is needed for the utility. KMEA assumes the project-related debt on behalf of the city. The city reimburses KMEA through a capacity contract payment that is simply included on KMEA’s normal monthly power supply bill.
On the evening of Thursday, October 24th, the city of Osawatomie began experiencing troubles at the power plant substation. After a full diagnosis of the problem, it was determined that the substation transformer was damaged, and a replacement was needed. With the cooperation of the city of Staff and KMEA/Mid-States a replacement transformer was located in Garden City. To meet the urgent need, the City of Garden City quickly approved the sale of the transformer and began efforts to load and transport it to Osawatomie Thursday evening.
This year’s recipient of Mike Gilliland award was Pat Adams, the City Administrator of the City of Halstead. Pat started working for the city on April 25, 1994 as a Utility Maintenance Worker. In October of 2000, he was promoted to the position of City Superintendent, overseeing all of the city’s Public Works and Utilities.
Bill Johnson, the General Manager for Kansas City BPU was the recipient of the award this year. Bill was appointed General Manager of Kansas City BPU on April 1, 2019. He has over 40 years of diverse utility experience into this executive leadership role. His responsibilities include serving as the Chief Executive Officer for the largest municipal electric and water utility in the State of Kansas. He earned an MBA from Ottawa University in 2007.
The 2023 Annual Conference was a success! The event was held in Wichita, Kansas on October 19th and 20th. We had representatives from 49 member cities and over 140 attendees total. We would like to thank all our sponsors, the conference would not be possible without their support. This year we had 21 companies sponsoring our event.
Ben Whiting was the keynote speaker and he opened the conference. His presentation was fun and inspiring! It was focused on leadership development with a touch of magic and lots of laughs.
Representatives from the Cities of Garden City, Gardner, Lindsborg, Ottawa, and Russell toured the Dogwood facility on September 21st. Dogwood is a 650 MW, natural gas fired, combined-cycle facility located in Pleasant Hill, Missouri In 2017, KMEA entered into an asset purchase agreement with Dogwood Energy LLC for the purchase of a 10.1% ownership interest […]
On September 25th, Kent Balkenbusch assumed the Day Ahead System Operator position. The position was previously occupied by DJ Smith. After dedicating 7 years to KMEA DJ moved on to a new career with the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). Kent has been employed at KMEA since 2014 and has been a system operator since 2016. […]
On September 19,2023 Governor Laura Kelly, alongside the Kansas Infrastructure Hub (KIH), announced the launch of the Build Kansas Fund, which provides state matching dollars to Kansas communities for infrastructure projects approved under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The Build Kansas Fund will invest $200 million directly into Kansas communities to support projects that include […]
KCC announced notice of funding opportunity to provide guidance to eligible entities (electric grid operators, electricity storage operators, electricity generators, transmission owners or operators, distribution provider and fuel suppliers or other entities determined by the DOE) for preparation of subgrant applications to be submitted to the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) in response to Section 40101(d) […]
