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From The CEO - FOSSRecently, the wholesale power contract between FreeState and one of our power suppliers, Kansas Electric Power Cooperative (KEPCo), was updated to include the ability to generate up to an additional 5% of peak demand (kW) and energy (kWh) utilizing renewable generation. 

The power contract adjustment is for the East District and allows FreeState the rare opportunity to expand renewable energy production at the cooperative level. A primary driver of increasing electric rates is increased peak demand, and FreeState’s wholesale power cost is based on that peak demand. 

We intend to take advantage of this opportunity to save our consumer-members money over time. FreeState is working on plans to build two 1 MW solar farms in our East District. 

As FreeState explores the opportunities provided by this new development, we know these solar projects will help the cooperative maintain the promise of providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to all of our consumer-members across the entire service territory. 

FreeState sees the benefit of lessening the cooperative’s carbon footprint. A 1 MW solar farm production is the equivalent of 1, 322 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Reducing the carbon footprint is just one benefit of renewable energy like solar. Harvesting clean energy is low maintenance and the cost to produce energy from the sun is practically zero, and grid distributed solar has lower losses during transfer due to the proximity to the end-user.

Solar projects reduce the amount of power purchased through the wholesale power contract with KEPCo, decrease peak demand and create stability for all FreeState consumer-members. 

We will be providing more information about our renewable opportunities in the coming months, but I wanted to take the opportunity to let our consumer-members know that we are working hard behind the scenes to come up with a solution to save money that makes sense, and uses clean, renewable energy.