Archive for category: General Information

Director, Regulatory & Rates

At Kansas Municipal Energy Agency we have one Vision.  KMEA is passionately committed to the success of our members fulfilling their primary mission of providing reliable and cost effective energy to their communities.  We pledge our relentless focus and dedication to providing new and innovative solutions to help our members achieve this mission.

This Vision is shared by each and every one of our employees.  If you too share this Vision, our Agency would like to talk to you in our search for a Director, Regulatory & Rates.  This position is responsible for managing the regulatory affairs and rate support for the Agency and our member cities.

Please email cover letter and resume to mahlberg@kmea.com.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Manage regulatory needs of the Agency before the Kansas Corporation Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other regulatory bodies
• Coordinate with regulatory staff on regulatory issues
• Provide written and oral testimony before the regulatory bodies
• Coordinate with legal counsel and political/rate advisors regarding regulatory strategy
• Provide strategic guidance with KCC, FERC and SPP filings and activities
• Assist with Agency needs before the Southwest Power Pool
• Perform impact analysis of new regulations from a quantitative perspective. Identify benefits and risks associated therewith on the Agency
• Assist in forecasting rates and revenue requirements for member cities
• Provide rates modeling support for member cities
• Perform or coordinate cost of service and rate design studies for member cities
• Provide guidance on rate strategies, cost allocations, and industry trends, and impact on KMEA and its member cities
• Coordinate responses to member city inquiries regarding regulatory activities and rate questions
• Maintain relationships with industry peers to stay abreast of new regulatory and rate issues

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Qualifications

Candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in business, economics, engineering or technical area or have five or more years the in the field or in a related area.  A suitable combination of education and relevant experience will be considered.

Additional qualifications

• Candidate must be extremely comfortable interacting with third parties such as lawyers, regulatory staff and corporation commissioners, and peers in industry, as well as the ability to competently present and testify regarding the Company’s positions in regulatory dockets and processes.
• The candidate must be proficient in the use of Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook, and have the ability to learn and adapt to other industry-related, proprietary software.
• Candidate should exhibit extensive knowledge of commonly-used concepts, practices, and procedures within the Energy and Gas industry; knowledge of accounting theory and energy markets. Employee should preferably exhibit knowledge in cost-of-service and rate design.
• Candidate should possess analytical skills typically accompanied by seven plus years’ experience in a utility rate analyst role, with rate management; Experience with regulatory filings and testimony experience strongly preferred.
• Must demonstrate ability to prioritize workflow and organize diverse material and ability to handle multiple, competing and changing priorities; ability to perform effectively without supervision and within established time limits and ongoing deadlines;
• All Agency employees are expected to exhibit exemplary customer service skills, both with external customers, vendors, visitors, co-workers, and management staff. Their written and verbal communication skills should be concise and effective, they should aspire to excellence in both work and customer service, they should show courtesy to all they encounter while representing the Agency.  They are also expected to maintain an air of professionalism in their interpersonal relationships and personal grooming, exercise confidentiality concerning the affairs of the Agency, exhibit a willingness to learn, willingness to problem solve and willingness to step in to help others, and openly and actively participate in the direction of our Agency.  KMEA views each of these traits as performance indicators, and employee appraisals reflect each of these attributes as an element of performance upon which employees are rated.

Salary Range

• $83,447-$164,335

As we reflect on the past year for the two agencies, 2018 will be marked as one of importance.

The year started off with an unexpected twist when the Kansas Corporation Commission ruled that the state statutes provided for full jurisdiction by the Commission over municipal energy agencies, such as KMEA, even though this right had never been exercised by the KCC.  After several months of working with and educating the State Legislature and other interested parties, the Governor signed Senate Bill 323 which amended the state statutes to allow for KMEA to “opt out” of full KCC jurisdiction. In June, the KMEA Board elected to exercise this opt-out option.

For KMEA, two key long-term projects started energy deliveries during this year – the Dogwood Energy Project and the Buckeye Wind Project. After completing the sale of bonds for the purchase price of the facility in March, five member cities began receiving the benefits of KMEA ownership in this large, efficient, gas-fired combined cycle plant. The Dogwood Facility had an outstanding year setting many operational records including amount of generation, revenues, and net margins. These five cities will continue to receive the benefits of KMEA’s ownership in this plant for many years to come.

In June, twenty-one cities began receiving energy from the Buckeye Wind Project located in Ellis County, Kansas. The benefits of this low cost, environmentally friendly resource will continue for a term of 15 years. For many of these cities, it is the first wind resource in their power supply portfolios. These two projects are prime examples of the value of joint action and the agency fulfilling its primary mission of providing reliable and cost effective energy to the member communities.

Staff and the Executive Committee for the gas agency spent considerable amount of time and effort on a couple unique projects. One of these efforts included discussions with a group of Nebraska cities and the potential of expanding our agency beyond the state borders of Kansas. After many discussions and providing a formal proposal to this group, it was ultimately decided by the Nebraska group not to move forward. Although not successful as a group, we do believe it will open the doors for potential to add a number of new members in the coming years.

The other KMGA project that staff and the membership have been working on is a prepay gas. Much of 2018 was spent learning about the benefits of a prepay gas project and eventually we identified a project for consideration by the KMGA members. We are currently working on agreements and expect that we will complete this project in the coming months bringing significant savings to our gas members that elect to participate.

Finally, the two agencies came together this year and completed a joint strategic plan for the agencies. KMEA President, Mike Muirhead, and KMGA President, Randy Frazer, established a task force of member cities and staff that participated in a 2 day retreat.  A comprehensive plan was developed that focuses on three areas of focus – strategic growth, communications/identity, and organization. We will present the strategic plan to both the KMEA and KMGA boards during our May meetings. We, as staff, are very excited about the direction that our members have set for us.

As we move into 2019, we will follow our mission statement of pledging our relentless focus and dedication to providing new and innovative solutions to help our members achieve reliable and cost effective energy to their communities. Finally, we would like to thank the entire membership for all the trust and support that you have provided us over the past year.  Thank you!

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