Sumner-Cowley Electric Cooperative Wednesday dedicated a solar array in Sumner County that’s expected to reduce the cooperative’s peak load and provide stable rates for members.
The solar array is located near Sumner-Cowley’s Miller Substation and was energized May 25. A ceremonial flipping of the switch was held this week.
In 2020, Arkansas -based Today’s Power Inc. was chosen by 12 Kansas cooperatives, including Sumner-Cowley, to provide solar produced power for cooperative use.
Through a 25-year-or-more agreement, the cooperative will purchase electricity generated by the new solar farm at a fixed low cost, according to a media statement from Today’s Power Inc. and the Sumner-Cowley cooperative.
Arkansas-based TPI owns and operates 100 percent of the solar array.
“Sumner-Cowley Electric is consistently looking for opportunities to better serve our member owners,” CEO Coni Adams said. “Shaving our summer peak provides rate stabilization year-round for all our membership. We are achieving this goal through a collaboration with TPI and the other Kansas cooperatives which exhibits our commitment to the cooperative principles and our mission “Building on our past…Lighting the way to the future.”
The opportunity to participate in the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program began when the wholesale power contract between all participating cooperatives and their generation and transmission cooperative, Kansas Electric Power Cooperatives, was modified to provide Kansas electric cooperatives with the ability to self-procure up to 15 percent of peak demand – with 5 percent of that amount specifically allowing for the addition of solar.
“Knowing that our work helps Sumner-Cowley offer the best to their members makes our job even more rewarding. When we started the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program, we knew that keeping the cost of power low was important to Sumner-Cowley, we are thrilled that we can work with them as well as other Kansas Co-ops to provide solar energy,” said TPI President Derek Dyson.
(Above photo: Sumner-Cowley Cooperative and TPI officials “flip the switch” in celebration of the new solar array. (Courtesy photo))