It was announced today by Evergy that their 300-megawatt wind-farm , consisting of 121 GE turbines, in north-central Kansas is now in operation. Read the release here.
This announcement is excellent news for BPU customers as it means now they can claim that over 40% of their energy comes from a renewable source.
In September of 2018, The McPherson BPU publicized its decision to procure another 75 MW of renewable wind energy from the Soldier Creek wind-farm in Nemaha county. The decision to purchase additional wind capacity was due to the favorable performance the public utility and their customers experienced from the 37 MW of wind-energy they bought in 2016 from a farm in Kingman county.
“Evergy applauds McPherson’s leadership in sustainability by using local, renewable energy,” said Jeff Martin, Evergy vice president, community and customer operations. “Your commitment helps grow wind development in our area, driving investment in local communities, and creating green jobs.”
BPU provides one of the lowest cost electric power supplies in the Nation. Electric intensive industrial customers have prospered in McPherson with the average industrial rate being only 5.3 cents per kWh in 2019. In addition to the competitive rates, BPU’s customers enjoy BPU’s virtually unlimited capacity and unbeatable reliability through their fully redundant electric system. BPU’s stable and competitive prices are credited to an interconnect agreement with Evergy, Inc.
Much of McPherson’s economic development success and appeal to electric intensive customers is attributed to the municipally owned Board of Public Utilities. Several large industrial companies in the McPherson area include Pfizer (manufacturer of pharmaceutical drugs), CHS Oil Refinery (gasoline and oil products), Viega (plastic and metal), Johns-Manville (fiberglass insulation) and many others.
Read more about McPherson BPU’s efforts to bring customers renewable options here.