Electric rates in Kansas have received plenty of attention recently. But what are the facts?
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One of the items being studied as commissioned by the 2019 Kansas legislature is whether “competitive markets for retail electricity can benefit all Kansas consumers.”  Sometimes referred to as retail wheeling, knowing the experience in other states, it is hard to imagine an objective consultant could conclude anything but “buyer beware.”

Retail wheeling would require consumers to choose their provider of electricity.  Most likely, your current electric provider would still be responsible for maintaining and operating the poles and wires to deliver electricity, but consumers would need to evaluate different rate plans and carefully select another company to secure the kilowatt-hours needed to keep their lights on.

We regularly hear proponents tout the Texas model and, of the states that have approved retail wheeling, it is probably the most active and could provide some good lessons.  Unfortunately, those lessons include brownouts in 2011, 2014 and 2015.

Brownouts are often coupled with higher prices and clearly a market price doesn’t mean a lower price. On Aug. 12 this year, the Texas wholesale electricity price spiked to $9,000 a megawatt-hour.  And it wasn’t a lone event in the Lone Star state.  Over a few days, the price averaged $6,537.45, a 36,000% increase.

That same day, Kansas wholesale prices averaged $35 a megawatt-hour. Do we really want to be exposed to such a volatile energy market?

Most people only think about the cost of electricity when the monthly bill arrives. It may be hard at that time to recognize the value it represents – four full weeks of heating and cooling comfort, refrigeration, lights, meal preparation, clothes washing, drying and ironing, television and other media entertainment, computer, internet and cell phone charging. Electricity has simplified household and professional chores and improved the quality of life – and our life expectancy.

And you can still get significant value out of a few cents’ worth of electricity. You can power a 9-watt LED lightbulb – the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb – 12 hours for just a couple pennies. A penny’s worth of electricity will power a microwave for about 4 minutes and a desktop computer for nearly 30 minutes.

Where else can you get that kind of value? The government can’t even make a penny for a penny anymore. According to the U.S. Mint, it now costs 1.5 cents to produce one.

Value can also be measured in other ways. Investments by utilities in environmental and regulatory upgrades have cut emissions and cooperatives in Kansas are leaders in emission-free energy production. For example KEPCo provides its 19-member cooperatives more than half their energy supply from emission-free sources.

READ KCC STUDY HERE

Rural Kansas expects and deserves an energy generation mix made up of varied sources. The rural electric cooperatives of Kansas invest in and generate energy from wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, natural gas, and coal every day for our members to insure safety, affordability, and reliability.

Co-ops are required to serve all members during times of peak demand, but they serve solar customers in a very unique way.

Using the cooperative only as a “back-up” still creates costs for the utility.

Fixed costs for connecting distributed generation such as solar remain constant, even if an individual’s energy purchases decline.

Solar customers make an individual investment in private generation, and we are happy to serve their energy needs, but other non-solar customers must not subsidize those users.

Members of Electric Cooperatives express higher than average levels of customer satisfaction. For good reason, Electric Cooperatives are different from other forms of business, and member-owners of cooperatives notice this difference. Here’s why:

• Co-ops put consumers first because the consumers are the owners. In addition, co-ops are locally owned and operated.
• When members call their co-op, they are talking with their neighbors.

Both of these aspects combine to make co-ops more responsive because members are the owners, and each co-op is accountable to their neighbors and community.

As the Kansas Legislature continues to discuss the future of energy in our state, we continue to prioritize the best interest of more than 280,000 consumer-members across Kansas.

SB 69, passed by the 2019 Kansas Legislature, authorized a study of 29 topics that may uncover some opportunities for utilities and customers to manage electricity costs in the future.  While the study may provide some useful insights, we remain cautious that the study may result in continued efforts to benefit large industrial consumers at a cost to Kansas residential customers.   We will work to ensure that any policy solution should include a benefit to all Kansas electric utility consumers, rather than selecting winners and losers.

Texas’ grid operator is warning of a potential power emergency as extreme heat sends electricity demand and prices skyrocketing to record levels.

With temperatures in Dallas approaching 100 degrees, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas warned that it was increasingly likely the electricity system could experience shortages — a prospect that could prompt regulators to ease environmental restrictions and allow generators to run at maximum capacity. The region’s power supply cushion has fallen close to 2,500 megawatts, less than 5% of total demand on the system.

Wholesale electricity prices have shot up by as much as 21,147% to $3,848.69 a megawatt-hour across the Texas grid. On Monday, they jumped 36,000% to average as much as $6,537.45 a megawatt-hour across the Texas power grid. It’s a record that has turned the Lone Star State into the most expensive place to buy power in all of America’s major markets.

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A special interest group behind a controversial proposal to deregulate Florida’s energy utilities is working hard to breathe new life into the flagging campaign to put the measure on the November 2020 ballot. If approved by Florida voters, household utility customers will lose the option to purchase electricity from their current provider, and will be forced to choose new suppliers for electricity on the open market.

In recent weeks, the group behind the campaign, Citizens for Energy Choices, has pushed a messaging strategy touting the so-called “Texas model,” which they claim is something Florida should strive to emulate. But Texas adopted a deregulation scheme almost two decades ago, and that state has been plagued with problems ever since – ranging from a massive and likely unrecoverable surge in household electricity costs, to a spike in consumer complaints.

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This is a workshop on the petition initiative entitled Right to Competitive Energy Market for Customers of Investor-Owned Utilities; Allowing Energy Choice.

WATCH IT HERE

The Electric Cooperatives across Kansas support a realistic energy plan. Read the most current version of the bill here.

Read Realistic Energy Plan