The City of Eudora, KS, population 6,300, seeks responsible applicants with knowledge to perform intermediate technical work maintaining and repairing pumps, motors and electrical wiring on City Buildings. Salary range varies upon qualification. Position reports to the Electrical Superintendent. Valid Kansas Driver’s License is required. Click here for more information:
The City of Baldwin City recently hosted a ground-breaking ceremony for their soon to be constructed solar array. Through an RFP process Baldwin City chose Westar as the developer for this exciting project. A project kickoff meeting will be held next week and KMEA will be working with Baldwin City and Westar throughout the project. Congratulations to Baldwin City for their vision in choosing solar energy for a portion of their power supply needs into the future.
March 18 is now national Natural Gas Utility Workers’ Day! In 2015, the APGA Marketing & Sales Committee began discussing how they believed natural gas utility workers deserved a day to be recognized for their hard work and accomplishments. After several months of planning, the committee named March 18 the day in which natural gas utility workers around the country will be honored each year. The decision to hold this day on March 18 was made by a poll on the APGA Community. March 18 is the date of the New London, Texas school explosion in 1937 that led to the widespread odorization of natural gas and an increased emphasis on safety. Safety is a vital aspect to natural gas distribution and the employees of distribution companies endeavor to make natural gas delivery as safe as possible.
Please honor the natural gas utility workers in your community and at your system by celebrating on March 18! APGA has provided materials to use, which are below. We encourage you to plan events, communication, social media posts, etc., to celebrate this new and very important day! Click Here for More Information
The American Public Power Association’s members on Feb. 26 approved several new policy resolutions that highlight the Association’s concerns about rising transmission costs, its opposition to efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to regulate public power pole attachments and the Association’s push for certain improvements to tax exempt financing.
The resolutions were approved by the Association’s Legislative & Resolutions Committee at its 2019 Legislative Rally in Washington, D.C.
Association officials at the Legislative Rally also outlined the public power trade group’s top priorities for this year, which include infrastructure, grid security and being ready to oppose any effort by the Trump Administration to divest the transmission assets of federal power marketing administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee Valley Authority… Read More
If I’ve told you this before don’t stop me. (I owe that line to my friend Charlie). Well so much for trying to be funny so on to the issue at hand.
I am concerned as most of you are with the issue of the rising cost of transmission and distribution charges and how those costs are going to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. I have attached graphs released by the EIA from 2017 and 2019 which confirm just that. It is interesting that the cost of power production is projected to decrease through 2050 as the T & D costs continue to rise.
The continued rise in transmission costs are mainly due to transmission build out and upgrades as identified by local and RTO planning. Much of this construction is driven by an aging and undersized transmission system coupled with the congestion caused by the installation of large amounts of renewable energy. FERC has incentivized the construction of new facilities with a guaranteed rate of return based on the system costs. To that end there is considerable motivation to build new facilities. As for the rising distribution costs, those are needed to offset the increased costs of maintaining the distribution system along with those who support it behind the scenes.
The bottom line is that we are stuck with the increased cost of transmission and distribution to the point that some of our members pay as much or more for T & D than for their power costs. As indicated by the EIA this trend will continue at least through 2050. Just a few short years ago the T & D was less than 25% of your total bill. In the coming months and years, regulators will be looking at the process they created to determine if the result is what is best for our electric grid us ratepayers.
Natural gas demand reached near-record levels in January, averaging 21.1 Billion Cubic Feet (Bcf) per day. This is the highest daily average demand since the 2014 polar vortex. February’s demand is nearing a multi-year record as month-to-date demand is averaging 19.7 Bcf/d. This is an increase of 1.25 Bcf/d from February 2017 and about 1 Bcf/day higher than the prior 5-year average.
Mid-continent prices have remain stable over the past couple of months amid the high demand for natural gas. January’s average daily index price was $2.81/MMBtu. February is currently averaging $2.51/MMBtu. In 2014 Mid-con daily index prices sky-rocketed above $30.00/MMBtu. Increased natural gas supply volumes from the Appalachia production basins in the Northeast have limited volatility in daily prices and kept Mid-con prices stable.
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!
Journey Level Lineman
Position Summary: The City of Ottawa, Kansas is recruiting for a Journey Level Lineman. Under the supervision of the Electric Distribution Assistant Superintendent, the Journey Level Lineman performs skilled work in the construction and maintenance of the electric distribution system for the City of Ottawa. The employee in this position is responsible for exercising judgment as to the details of assigned work within prescribed operating procedures. The Journey Level Lineman is responsible for maintenance of power lines, electrical equipment, and transformers. Work is performed according to departmental procedures, practices, and safety regulations.
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