Kansas Municipal Utilities highlights workforce training, mutual aid and local control

Greg Dumas, project manager for Kansas Municipal Utilities, told the Kansas Senate Committee on Utilities on Oct. 12 that municipal utilities across the state face staffing shortages and aging systems and described a suite of training, mutual-aid and local power projects KMU offers to address those problems.

KMU, founded in 1928, now represents municipal electric, natural gas, water and wastewater utilities and provides advocacy, training, technical assistance and communications to its 213 municipal members, Dumas told the committee. He said the organization operates a 35-acre training facility in McPherson and runs apprenticeship and operator-certification programs for utility trades.

"KMU's mission is to unify support and advance municipal utilities," Dumas said. He said KMU runs an 8,000-square-foot shop and classroom complex and logged 174 events with almost 5,400 participants at the facility in 2024.

Why it matters: municipal utilities provide locally controlled water, gas and electric service and are a major employer in many communities. Dumas said workforce shortages, retirements and rural-to-urban population shifts make recruitment and training essential to maintaining service reliability and public-health safeguards for water systems.

Dumas described specific workforce programs: a line-worker apprenticeship with 85 apprentices (61 in Kansas), CDL and heavy-equipment training, gas operator OQ training, water/wastewater operator coaching and board-and-council trainings to help local officials oversee utilities. He also said certified utility apprentices can earn roughly $50,000 annually and journeyman line workers can make more than $80,000 once certified.

Senator John Thompson asked whether the shortage of electrical linemen persists. "Yes. It is," Dumas replied, and described a proposed eight-week "kick start" boot-camp curriculum intended to prepare high-school students for trades and to screen for ability to work at heights and in field conditions.

Senator Karen Bowser asked about cyber preparedness for critical infrastructure. Dumas said KMU has hosted trainings with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), participated in the biannual GRIDX exercise, and will co-host a fall exercise called "Safe Haven" focused on cyber and operational-technology threats with the U.S. Department of Energy and American Public Power Association. "It’s focused on cyber and it is being put together jointly with Department of Energy, American Public Power Association and KMU," he said.

Dumas also described KMU's role as the state coordinator for municipal mutual aid, a system KMU organized after the Greensburg tornado and 2007 ice storms. He said member utilities call KMU with an assessment of needs and KMU reaches out to other municipal members and national mutual-aid networks to assemble personnel, equipment and materials for response and recovery. KMU participates in the national Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network and in APPA mutual-aid committees and has sent crews to multiple states in response to disasters.

On energy supply, Dumas outlined joint-action agencies that help municipal utilities secure generation and transmission services, including Kansas Municipal Energy Agency (KMEA), KMU's description of members' generation portfolios, and KPP Energy, which aggregates power supplies for 24 members. He gave a brief example of local battery storage: a 2-megawatt battery in Minneapolis, Kansas, installed to address voltage issues and reduce reliance on diesel backup during high-demand periods.

Committee members asked several follow-ups about KMU partnerships and service referrals; Dumas said KMU collaborates with state associations, the Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center (subcontracted by EPA for technical assistance), and other local partners. He said many communities are referred to KMU by those partners for assistance with workforce or compliance challenges.

Dumas repeated that municipal utilities are locally regulated by elected governing bodies and emphasized KMU’s focus on supporting local control, reliability and workforce development as ways to keep technical capacity and economic activity in communities.

The presentation ran about 28 minutes and concluded with committee questions; the committee did not take formal action on the presentation during the session.