Kansas Municipal Utilities outlines statewide training, mutual aid and workforce plans

Greg Dumars, project manager for Kansas Municipal Utilities (KMU), told the Transparency and Ethics Committee that KMU supports municipally owned electric, natural gas, water and wastewater systems across Kansas and is focusing on workforce training, mutual aid and reliability tools.

KMU, founded in 1928 and headquartered in McPherson, now lists 213 members and 16 association employees, Dumars said. The association operates a 35-acre training site with a roughly 20,000-square-foot building that includes an 8,000-square-foot shop, an auditorium that can hold up to 300 people and outdoor hands-on training fields for electric, gas and water systems. “We have over 200 members. We are now at 213,” Dumars said. He added, “We have a training staff of 6 that is on the road … they traveled over 200,000 miles” in the last year to deliver safety and technical training.

Why it matters: municipal utilities provide local control of critical services, supply local employment and can offer faster outage responses because utility workers live in the communities they serve. Dumars told the committee that local ownership helps keep payroll and purchases in the community and that municipal utilities still measure themselves against investor-owned utilities and cooperatives for performance metrics.

Key programs and numbers

- Workforce and training: KMU runs apprenticeship and certification programs across utility trades. Dumars said there are 85 lineworker apprentices enrolled across Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, and he estimated 61 of those apprentices are Kansans. KMU also offers power-plant operator certification, meter and substation training, CDL and mobile-crane (digger derrick) certification and a variety of safety workshops.

- Facility usage and communications: In 2024 KMU hosted 5,398 visitors for trainings and meetings, maintains about 111 electronic communications products (biweekly dispatch, legislative updates in session, weekly headlines) and delivers more than 120 different classes statewide.

- Mutual aid and disaster response: KMU coordinates a statewide mutual-aid network created after the 2007 Greensburg tornado and the 2007 ice storm. The association participates in the Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network (a mutual-aid network recognized by EPA and FEMA) and the American Public Power Association mutual-aid efforts. Dumars said Kansas crews have responded to multistate events in Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida, Nebraska and Georgia.

- Member joint-action agencies: Dumars described two joint-action organizations that serve KMU members—Kansas Municipal Energy Agency (KMEA), which is project-based and allows members to pick projects, and Kansas Power Pool (KPP), whose costs are allocated across membership. He said members’ fuel mix includes natural gas and wind, with some hydro via Western Area Power Administration arrangements, and highlighted the Solomon Energy Storage Project (a battery) as a local reliability solution for Minneapolis, Kansas.

Apprenticeship “kick start” proposal

Dumars described a proposed “kick start” program aimed at recruiting high-school students into lineworker careers. The course would be an intensive eight-week, 40-hours-per-week program with hands-on training; Dumars said the curriculum is developed but KMU needs capital to purchase equipment. “We need about $1,600,000 to purchase all the equipment from digger derricks, bucket trucks, etc. to get it off the ground,” he said. He also said KMU estimates the association would invest roughly $20,000 per trainee in that intensive program and that utilities would help match trainees to jobs.

Regulatory and certification support

Dumars described KMU’s work helping smaller systems meet operator certification and compliance requirements. He said Class 1–4 operators must obtain 10 hours of continuing education every two years and smaller systems must obtain five hours every two years; KMU provides training, sampling and reporting support and helps members prepare the required Consumer Confidence Report.

Questions from senators

Senator Bowser asked about definitions of the association’s energy management project tiers; Dumars described them as geographically and market-node driven arrangements that let members take energy off a single SPP transmission node (a single price point). Senator Pette asked how many communities rely on contracted line crews; Dumars said only two communities contract line crews from KMEA and the rest employ their own lineworkers. Senator Pette also pressed for precise apprentice counts; Dumars gave the 85-apprentice total and the 61-Kansas estimate.

No formal committee action was taken on the presentation. Chair Bowers closed the session after members asked for follow-up on unrelated bill scheduling.

Ending: Dumars offered to answer further questions and Committee Chair Bowers and members thanked him for the presentation.