On February 22, 2024, KYMEA’s All Requirements (AR) Project Committee and Board of Directors voted to approve the City of Berea Municipal Utilities’ (Berea) request to become KYMEA’s newest AR member. Berea joins the existing AR Members: The Cities of Bardwell, Falmouth, Madisonville, Paris, and Providence, the Frankfort Plant Board, the Barbourville Utility Commission, and the Corbin City Utilities Commission. The addition of Berea is a testament to KYMEA’s commitment to low rates and operational excellence —especially when faced with the pandemic and market challenges during the Agency’s infancy.
Berea serves over 4,000 residential customers and over 600 commercial and industrial customers. Berea began electric services in 1917, when at the time, Berea College purchased a city franchise to furnish street lighting and begin power distribution to retail customers. In 2005 Berea Municipal Utilities was formed to combine electric, water, and wastewater services into a single department under the City of Berea.
“The City of Berea is excited about joining KYMEA as an all-requirements member, said Kevin Howard, City of Berea Municipal Utilities General Manager. “When we began our RFP process, our goal was to select a provider that could provide a reliable power supply at a low cost to our customers. We were also looking for a strong renewable portfolio with the ability to provide overall rate stability—all huge hurdles in today’s power supply markets.
KYMEA checked the box on all these requirements. We feel we have made a decision that will serve our rate payers well both now and into the future.
As a transmission only customer of KYMEA since 2019, we have seen firsthand the dedication the all-requirements group and KYMEA staff have shown to their member communities. The sound business decisions, power supply strategies, and planning for the future shown by the collective group enabled us to make the decision KYMEA was the partner that would best meet our needs and allow us to continue providing reliable, low cost power to our local community.”
KYMEA will begin supplying all of Berea Municipal Utilities’ wholesale power needs starting May 1, 2024.
About Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency
Created in September 2015, 11 municipal electric utilities entered into an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement creating the Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency (KYMEA), a joint public agency. KYMEA was formed to facilitate effective collaboration among its members to do all things necessary or convenient to serve the current and future electric power and energy requirements of the members and to provide assistance to the members related to their electric power and energy utility systems.
More information is available at www.kymea.org.