Archive for category: General Information

KMEA had the pleasure to join the city of Sterling at the ribbon cutting for their new substation.  This substation project has doubled the capacity the city can now receive from the transmission provider.  This will also prevent the city from running the power plant during high load situations when the current transformer would not handle the entire load of the city.  Other resiliency improvements will be realized with the addition of this new transformer allowing the city to have back up capabilities when maintenance needs done.  KMEA is proud to be a strategic partner in the project.  Congratulations to the city of Sterling on their upgrades to their community owned utility.

The City of Ashland KS is seeking applicants for the position of electrical lineman. Job responsibility include, but not limited to, the construction and repair of City electrical distribution lines. Prior electrical experience is preferred. Benefits include health insurance, vacation, sick leave, KPERS, and paid holidays, and the salary depends on qualifications and experience. Please contact City Hall at 620-635-2531 or via e-mail at ashland@ucom.net for complete job description and application. Please return completed application and resume to the City of Ashland, 703 Main Street, PO Box 547, Ashland KS 67831. EOE

KMEA had the pleasure to volunteer at the APPA Lineworkers Rodeo hosted by Kansas City BPU at National  Agriculture Center & Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, Kansas this past weekend. Apprentices from the City of Garden City represented the State of Kansas on the competition. You can see the results here.

The City of Anthony is accepting applications for a full-time Water/Wastewater Department Head.  Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent, and no criminal record; a valid Class B Commercial driver’s license with tanker and air brake endorsements or obtain within 180 days of employment; and must possess a Class I Wastewater Operator Certification and a Class III Water Operator Certification or obtain certifications within two years. Salary is 45K/yr. DOE.  Excellent benefits including health insurance, KPERS retirement plan and PTO leave. Send application, resume and three work-related references to:  City of Anthony, P.O. Box 504, Anthony, KS.  67003.  Call 620-842-5434 for additional information.  Position is open until filled.  The City of Anthony is an EOE.

Energy Management Project No. 1 (EMP1) was officially created in January 2006, by a set of agreements between KMEA and five member cities: Baldwin City, Gardner, Garnett, Osawatomie, and Ottawa. In 2016 the city of Pomona joined the group and in 2017 the city of Prescott became a member.

The participating cities share capacity and exchange energy at agreed upon pricing, while jointly planning future electric power supplies. EMP1 utilize KMEA operations central dispatch center.  Under the EMP1 agreements, project cities’ loads are forecasted and aggregated to a single load which is then submitted to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) for clearing in the Integrated Marketplace (IM).  Additionally, each city’s resources, whether contracted or generation, are scheduled or offered in the IM.  KMEA also manages transmission congestion hedges as specified by protocols developed by each EMP group.

The EMP1 group meets monthly. This month the group met on March 28^th at the KMEA office in Overland Park. During the meeting KMEA staff shared a monthly load cost review for each city individually, TCR (Transmission Congestion Right) reports, SPP integrated Marketplace review, and more. Jeff Oleson, the Assistant Director of Utilities for the City of Ottawa is the EMP1 Chair currently and Joe Owens, the Director of Electric Generation for the City of Garnett is the vice-chair.

The EMP1′ s resources include Buckeye Wind, Dogwood, GRDA, Marshall Wind, SPA and WAPA.