Entries by KMEA

Osawatomie partners with Garden City to receive emergency transformer

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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.          

KMGA 2023 Awards

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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.

KMEA 2023 Awards

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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.

2023 Annual Conference

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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.

Cities Toured Dogwood Facility

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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 […]

Kent Balkenbusch takes over as Day Ahead System Operator

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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. […]

Governor Kelly Announces Launch of $200M Build Kansas Fund to Accelerate Transformative Community Infrastructure Projects

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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 Announces Notice of Funding Opportunity For Subgrants to Eligible Entities to Improve the Resilience of the Electric Grid

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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) […]

La Crosse adds new CAT generator

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The City of LaCrosse purchased a new 2 MW CAT generator. KMEA is assisting the City of LaCrosse with the installation of the new generator. This generator will sit in the spot of an engine that was taken out of service several decades ago. Also, another key decision point to purchasing this new engine was a key engine in the plant had piston issues that is very costly to repair. The new generator arrived onsite at the power plant Thursday, September 17th. KMEA, Foley Power Solutions, and the City of Lacrosse are targeting to have the generator up and running before the end of the year. The new generator will be more automated than the existing generation for easier operations. The CAT generator will come online faster which allows for faster service to the customers when the utility is lost.