Archive for category: General Information

In conjunction with the November 5^th KMEA Annual Conference and Board of Directors meetings, KMGA staff will host a breakout session for KMGA cities. The purpose of this session is to discuss the management of your city’s natural gas distribution system. Topics to be addressed include: reviewing KMGA invoices, calculating rates for end-use customers, tracking and reporting data, and management fees. If there are other topics pertaining to your natural gas distribution system that would be of interest to you, please contact Dixie Riedel at Riedel@kmea.com or 913-660-0230. The KMGA breakout session will be held from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 5^th at the DoubleTree by Hilton located at 2098 S. Airport Road in Wichita, Kansas.

The KMEA November 5 -6, 2015 Annual Conference is just around the corner. It’s not too late to register! We are kicking off the conference with the KMGA and KMEA Board of Directors meetings, which start on Thursday, November 5th at 10:00 a.m. Registration will run from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

We are excited to bring you some great speakers presenting topics you won’t want to miss. Additionally, our keynote speaker this year is decorated combat pilot, Lt. Colonel Kevin Sweeney, the only pilot to successfully land a plane after two of the four engines were completely ripped off the plane while on a combat mission in Desert Storm. This event was recognized as the finest piece of airmanship in the entire Gulf War.

There is still time to register, however, to meet hotel deadlines and finalize conference materials, please be sure to register no later than Friday, October 23^rd. You can register by going to the Events tab on the kmea.com website or simply click here to go directly to the conference site, which includes the registration form, conference program and more. We hope to see as many of you as possible, as this year’s conference promises to be a great event.

Wednesday was a momentous day for Coffeyville Municipal Light and Power (CMP&L) as local leaders, utility officials and dignitaries held a groundbreaking ceremony for Generation Facility No.2. Construction will officially begin October 12^th and the new plant, located in the Coffeyville Industrial Park, is expected to be in operation by January 1, 2017.

The construction of the $58, 000,000 plant is the result of a power purchase and sale agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority. The contract led to an agreement to purchase and install 3 – 18.7 MW Wärtsilä generating units, which adds an additional 56 MW of generating capacity. Burns & McDonnell is the engineering firm for the project.

One of the significant benefits of the plant is the quick start capability of the new generators. Should Coffeyville experience a power loss, the new generators could be up and running, and restoring power to the city within 10 minutes. This is an exciting step forward for CMP&L, which has grown into one of the largest municipally owned utilities in Kansas, servicing over 60 square miles and over 6,300 customers. Construction of Generation Facility No.2, just adds to the rich legacy of CMP&L, which has been providing power since 1901.

With the 2013 Annual Conference, KMEA started what has now become a popular tradition – recognizing member cities’ capital improvements. Last year, we were honored to recognize Baldwin City’s city-wide water and electric meter upgrades, Garden City’s completion of several major projects, including construction of the Jameson Energy Center, Oberlin’s progress with their ongoing electrical infrastructure improvement plan, Garnett’s replacement of 100 city street lights with new, more efficient, LED lights, along with celebrating 100 years of generating electricity. We also had the privilege of recognizing Pratt’s project of overhauling their steam unit, and Russell’s retro-fitting three generating units and beginning a multi-year project to upgrade and improve reliability of their electrical distribution system.

KMEA is aware that many of you are continuously making improvements to your municipal systems and we would like to recognize those of you who have made capital improvements to the electric or gas utilities in your communities at our November 5-6 Annual Conference. Whether the capital improvements are new improvements just underway, project updates since last year or progress toward a multi-year project, we want to shine the light on you. Please help us by sending photographs and a clear description of your improvements to Patrick Ryan at ryan@kmea.com by October 12^th

Interestingly, a news clipping about Solar Energy, preserved as a keepsake during the days of the Korean War, was recently shared with KMEA. Note the caption of the article from the Tuesday, April 7, 1953 Pacific Stars & Stripes publication, titled “Solar Energy Switch Hailed by Scientists.” Back in 1953, the solar energy conversion efficiency was very low, however, the concluding sentence of the article makes a rather prophetic statement: “The new method (solar energy) converts about 1 percent of the sunlight absorbed into chemical energy. But there is no obvious reason why the efficiency cannot be increased to such an extent that the method may become of economic importance.”

Today, the conversion rate is in the neighborhood of 25% and new technologies continue to emerge that could harvest more of the sun’s energy. The industry has been considering solar energy for decades and is still dealing with the “economic importance” issue.   We are thrilled to have APPA’s Paul Zummo as one of our featured speakers at the KMEA Annual Conference, who will be giving a solar presentation.