Rolling blackouts are a rising threat across the U.S. as aging power grids collide with extreme weather, rising electricity demand and a shift to cleaner fuels, the nation’s top grid monitor warned Wednesday. In a report, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said most regions of the country face growing risks of inadequate electricity supplies […]
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Since 2019 when Southwest Power Pool (SPP) officially became a reliability coordinator for several utilities in the Western Interconnection, the grid operator has steadily grown its western customer base and portfolio of western services. The first two weeks of November 2023 have seen SPP make significant progress in continuing to advance three of those services: its operation of the Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP) on behalf of Western Power Pool; Markets+, SPP’s proposed bundle of day-ahead and real-time market services; and expansion of SPP’s regional transmission organization (RTO) services into the Western Interconnection.
The Florida Municipal Power Agency recently filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency voicing concerns about EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule for electric utilities.
The rule, which targets CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, presents unique challenges in Florida, FMPA noted.
FMPA is a wholesale power agency owned by municipal electric utilities in Florida.
Florida relies on natural gas generation for 75% of its power supply, “by far the highest percentage in the United States. It would be one of the most impacted states by EPA’s proposed rule, which would introduce experimental ‘green’ hydrogen to partially fuel natural gas power plants by 2032,” FMPA said in a news release related to the comments.
Storage Levels Continue to Grow
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a rare late-season injection of 10 Billion Cubic Feet (Bcf) into storage for the week ended November 24th. Expectations were for a 10 Bcf withdrawal due to the colder temperatures over the Thanksgiving holiday. Current storage inventory is at 3,836 Bcf which is nearly 9% above the five-year average.
At the November 21st Russell council meeting the city council approved a resolution authorizing and providing for the acquisition and installation of 15 Megawatts of generation.
Representatives from KMEA, Gilmore Bell, Stifel, and Russell staff presented the generation project details and its stages to the City Council. The project consists of five 3 Megawatts CAT generating units to be added in both power plant locations.
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.
