 Bob Arellano |
 Keo Bopunpaseuth and Sam Mills |
KMEA Staff visited the Jameson Energy Center on January 30th. Sam Mills, Managing Director, Electric Operation and Gerry Bieker, Manager, Member Services visited with Bob Arellano and Keo Boundpaseuth and toured the facilities.
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Staff visited the cities of Cimarron, Garden City, Lakin, Johnson City, Hugoton and Montezuma on January 30th and 31st.
In 2007 Gas Generation was on margin, meaning setting the price of energy, 75% of the time. Today Gas Generation sets the marginal price for energy just under 50% of the time. This has been driven primarily by an increase in wind technology in the marketplace. Wind Generation now makes up greater than 15% of all installed generation in Southwest Power Pool. Wind Generation only sets the market price when there is an excess of energy and units are priced to come off line … in other words when, prices are very low. What does all this mean to you?
The past two years the difference between a gas vs. coal unit on margin has been irrelevant because gas prices have been low. This has translated to real time energy prices being proportionally very low.
Currently we have opposing market conditions, rising gas prices with a decrease in gas units on margin. Coal and Gas unit’s prices are starting to diverge creating a condition where we could see more swings in the real time energy price. Hopefully, overall average prices will stay proportionally low but we could see a lower correlation between on peak and off peak prices.
KMEA member cities invested in a 24/7 operations staff that is positioned to respond to the real time market. KMEA staff monitors the market and is able adjust schedules and instruct dispatch to meet potential increase in price volatility.
2016 was an eventful year for your agencies and I wanted to hit on a couple highlights. We continue to grow in both agencies – 3 new members began taking natural gas supply from KMGA – the City of Burrton, the City of Russell’s power plant, and finally the City of Wellington’s power plant and Fire station. On the KMEA side, the City of Kiowa joined the EMP3 group and the City of Anthony joined the EMP2 group. We now have 33 cities under our three EMP groups including the City of Eudora where we manage the cities energy supply and interaction with the Southwest Power Pool energy markets.
After a thorough process managed by the EMP joint advisory committee, the Agency transitioned to an in-house 24/7 operations. In addition to the benefits of managing these services in-house (control, confidentiality, sustainability, etc.), the Agency saved over $350,000 per year from the prior third party contractor costs. The 24/7 Operations started up without a hitch on September 29. I want to personally thank the KMEA staff (Tom, Sam, Paula, David, Kent, D.J., Garrett, Neil, John and Jennifer) for their outstanding efforts to make this transition as easy and as smooth as possible.
2017 will also be a busy year as we continue to work on power supply opportunities regarding potential renewable resources (wind and solar) and the Dogwood Energy Facility. In addition, we will continue to be heavily involved in the Southwest Power Pool activities this year as SPP continues to evolve and make changes regarding the Integrated Marketplace and the regional transmission system.
Finally, we are looking to improve our communication stream with all our members and this e-newsletter is just one of the ways that we will reach out. In addition to your existing staff, your new Manager of Member Services, Gerry Bieker, has hit the road running (literally) since coming on board in August. We value these face-to-face meetings with the membership and hope you do as well.
The entire KMEA staff looks forward to working with all of you this upcoming year!
KMEA Staff attended the KMU Day at the Capitol event on January 17th. Colin Hansen, KMU Executive Director and Kimberly Svaty, KMU Legislative Liaison lead the event. Several presenters provided information on upcoming legislative action from a wide range of issues.
Five Cities were represented from the Northwest corner of the state at a lunch meeting presented by KMEA and hosted by the City of Colby. This meeting was an initial meeting to discuss opportunities to work together to create efficiencies for everyone involved. The group had a very good discussion and developed a direction for their efforts.
Andrew Finzen, Goodland City Manager, Dustin Bedore, Goodland Utility Director, Troy Haas, Oberlin City Administrator, Tyson McGreer, Colby City Manager, Omar Weber, Colby Public Utilities Director, Gordon Gilbert, Colby Electric Director, J.R. Landenberger, St. Francis City Superintendent, Brad Hatfield, Sharon Springs Power Plant Operator. Not Pictured: Gerry Bieker, KMEA Manager, Member Services
KMEA Staff visited the cities of Enterprise and Lucas on January 9th, 2017. Paul Froelich, City Superintendent and Deana Payne, City Clerk with the City of Enterprise took time out of there day to visit with staff and view delivered documents. Kay Mettlen, City Clerk for the city of Lucas also met with staff later in the day and discussed delivered documents.
KMEA Staff started out the new year with a tour up through the North and East part of the state. Staff met with three cities on January 4, 2017. The day started with a meeting with Janel Huninghake, City Clerk for the City of Centralia and moved a few miles to the North and met with Matt Rehder, City Administrator for the City of Seneca. The final stop of the day was with Jane Boeh, City Clerk for the City of Troy.
Last Wednesday, December 21st the KMEA Executive Committee Meeting was held at the new KMU Training Center in McPherson, KS. The Ribbon cutting ceremony and the open house for KMU’s new training center was held on November 29th. The center has three sections: a 7,000-square-foot garage for hands-on training indoors, a 200-seat auditorium classroom, and offices for KMU employees.
As a member KMEA congratulates KMU on the completion of this successful project.
