Archive for category: General Information

A year ago, I wrote about how we were looking toward a bountiful harvest in 2020 as the year prior (2019) was spent planting the seeds for things to come. Little did we know what we were about to face with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The pandemic created new challenges, both professionally and personally, that we all had to experience, learn and navigate through while trying to keep the services we provide at the highest level. We can only imagine the complications this created for all of you, especially our members who provide the essential services to your city and citizens.

For us, the challenges created by the pandemic, albeit not as significant as yours, happen to come during one of the busiest years for your agencies. We had several significant items that occurred over the last year: (i) the startup of KMEA’s first electric line crew in Dighton occurred in May, (ii) six new cities (Arma, Blue Mound, Chetopa, La Harpe, Lindsborg and Moran) began taking power supply realizing up to 40% savings from their prior contractual power supply arrangements in June, (iii) purchase of the Mid-States assets was completed in July allowing our agency to provide much needed engineering and field services; (iv) work on two large construction projects in Anthony and Moundridge continued; and (v) significant progress on potential new gas services for our KMGA membership was made.

We are truly thankful for the guidance, leadership and the support of the entire membership which allowed for the successes we had during 2020 despite the challenges we faced. As I hoped a year ago, we now can enjoy the harvest this past year from the seeds that you provided us in 2019.

But now it is time to put 2020 in the past and move on to 2021. We have several new opportunities that we are exploring including a second line crew in the eastern part of the State, continued development of gas services program for our gas members, potential of a substation maintenance program, and adding additional members to our EMP groups and to our gas agency to name a few.

With the utmost sincerity, thank you for allowing us to serve you and we look forward to working with you in 2021.

Paul Mahlberg
General Manager

We are quickly approaching the end of the year that marked the 40th Anniversary of KMEA. I wanted to have one more look back at where KMEA came from and the cities that made this exceptional agency possible today.

We have found the “Minutes of Annual Meeting of Members of Northwest Kansas Power Agency.” These minutes are from a meeting held at the Ramada Inn in Colby, Kansas on April 27, 1976. This meeting occurred approximately four years before KMEA was created by State Law.

Southwest Power Pool (SPP) on Nov. 12 reported that it has received letters from several western power entities committing to evaluate membership in the organization.

If they pursue membership, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN), Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) would become the first members of SPP’s regional transmission organization to place facilities in the Western Interconnection under the terms and conditions of SPP’s open access transmission tariff.

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In the last 15 years the electric industry has evolved the most through the changing mix in resources for electric generation. In the 1980s, 1990s, and into the 2000s the building of coal plants was a thing of the times. Nuclear was struggling due mainly to massive cost overruns for nearly every nuclear project that was undertaken. Coal plants were reliable (and still are), and a known technology making them less complicated to build than nuclear.