Archive for category: General Information

The American Public Power Association (APPA) and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) have asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch an investigation to determine whether any potential wrongdoing led to historic natural gas price spikes during Winter Storm Uri last month.

In a March 26 letter to CFTC Acting Chairman Rostin Behnam, APPA and APGA noted that Uri brought snow, ice, and record low temperatures to many states, including those not accustomed to harsh winters and the disruptions that can accompany them.

“Throughout this severe weather, many communities across the U.S. relied on their public gas utilities to maintain delivery of safe, traditionally affordable, and reliable natural gas for use in space and water heating and cooking. Public power utilities likewise worked around the clock to maintain reliable and affordable electric service to their customers,” the letter pointed out.

“Unfortunately, many of these not-for-profit municipal gas and public power utilities, and consequently their customers, were subject to exorbitant price increases throughout the crisis,” the trade groups said in asking the CFTC initiate an investigation to determine whether any potential wrongdoing led to these historic price spikes.

APPA and APGA noted that during Presidents’ Day weekend, natural gas prices, which have hovered around $3/MMBtu in recent years, skyrocketed to upwards of $300/MMBtu and even higher in some cases.

“With demand for natural gas rising in response to the cold temperatures, our members had no choice but to purchase gas at the inflated prices or pay even steeper penalties to ensure their customers could continue to heat their homes or to allow natural gas-fueled electric generation to continue operating,” the trade groups said.

In one case, a municipal utility spent its monthly gas budget each day over that weekend.  In another, a joint action agency expended three times its annual gas purchasing budget just to buy gas for its customers for four days. In southern Kansas, the city of Winfield, a public gas and power system serving a city of 12,300, which normally pays $1.6 million a year for natural gas, “is looking at a February bill of an almost unbelievable sum of nearly $10 million.”

APPA and APGA said that similar stories “abound throughout the Midwest, south-central, and other regions that were most severely impacted by the storm, and have brought into question how many of these communities will be able to purchase needed gas throughout the remainder of the winter, let alone the rest of the year.”

Publicly-owned utilities across the country “are now struggling to pay the bills they incurred, while trying to minimize the impacts to their customers. Some are receiving demands for collateral and margin calls from sellers who are threatening to cut off further gas supplies. Without relief, however, these high prices will be passed directly to their consumers,” the groups said.

APGA and APPA asked that the CFTC evaluate the clearing price of natural gas before, during, and after the cold weather event to determine if prices charged during the period would be considered price gouging or an unfair act and, if so, identify the recipients of unfairly gotten gains in addition to seeking remedies for those negatively impacted.

APGA and APPA noted that their members are locally owned and governed. “They are accountable to their customers, not corporate boards or investors — community support, affordability, and quality service are mandates for these utilities, and they plan accordingly.“

The prices experienced by APPA and APGA members during this event “were unforeseeable, even with such careful planning. Our members are also uniquely concerned with how the market reacted in this emergency because publicly-owned utilities’ rates are set at the local level. Consequently, we believe an objective investigation is warranted.”

The letter was signed by APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto and APGA President and CEO Dave Schryver.

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The KMGA Equipment Loan Program provides members access to equipment resources to assist in the operations of their natural gas system.  KMGA currently has a Remote Methane Leak Detector (RMLD) that is available for KMGA members to use at no cost to your city.  The attached flyer provides additional information on the RMLD.

You can request use of the RMLD by completing the electronic form at:  https://kmea.com/kmga-equipment-loan-program/.

Or you can also contact Dixie Riedel to request the use of the RLMD at 913-660-0230 or riedel@kmea.com.

Jerry with the City of Cheney had this to say about using the RMLD:

“I really liked using the RMLD; it saved a lot of time especially on surveying the yard lines. We have quite a number of 6 foot privacy fences & some dogs that aren’t very trustworthy.  Once I set the limits, it worked great. Very simple to use, light weight, easy to calibrate & user friendly. Thank you KMGA for making this purchase!”

Beginning in January 2021, KMEA has added 2 Testo 340 Gas Analyzers to our Loaner Equipment inventory.  The analyzers were purchased specifically for pre-testing the reduction of emissions in the catalysts for our member’s “RICE” compliant engines.  This allows operators some comfort that the catalysts will perform as they should ahead of scheduling expensive certified tests.

The City of Baldwin City was the first to utilize the equipment and Jeff Winkler, Power Plant Superintendent had this to say about the equipment:

“Last week we were the first city to get to use the two Testo 340 gas analyzers that KMEA recently purchased.  The preliminary CO reduction tests that we ran on our two RICE compliant engine catalysts help assure us that the cats are actually still performing as expected and ready for the either three or five year emissions test required by the Federal Government and the State of Kansas.  Even though this test is not a certified test, it does give us some assurance that the units will actually perform as expected in the certified test without cleaning or replacing the catalysts.  As you know, the certified tests are rather expensive, and if the catalysts failed during the test we would be forced to clean or replace the cats and then schedule the certified tests again after the replacement.

The Testo 340s proved to be easy to use.  The only readings that we were interested in at the time were carbon monoxide, but these units are also set up to do much more.  Each of the units can test for O2, CO, and SO2 in engines and turbines run on both diesel and natural gas.   Even though we did not try it, the units are also able to send the info to a Bluetooth printer if desired.  The fact that you have two Testo 340s allow both the pre cat and post cat gases to be tested simultaneously or the tools could be loaned to two cities at once and each unit’s probe could be moved between the pre cat and post cat ports to determine reduction performance.”

“KMEA’s loaner program is just one more of the many benefits of being a member city.” 

Jeff Winkler

Baldwin City Power Plant

Loaner Equipment is available to KMEA Member Cities on a first come first serve basis.  Please Contact Gerry Bieker, Manager, Member Services to inquire about availability. Or by phone at 913-660-0232

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.