Several Lawrence officials and residents have expressed frustration that the City Commission didn’t discuss an offer to power the city exclusively with wind energy before the option was no longer available.
City staffers said Westar Energy’s offer was under review but officials hadn’t determined whether the energy plan was worth pursuing, the Lawrence Journal-World reported . Westar had approached some of its large-demand customers in July to purchase wind energy at a fixed rate for the next 20 years.
The Missouri-based utility had 200 megawatts of wind power available from a planned wind farm to be in operation by next year, and the energy reservations were offered on a first-come, first-served basis. All energy has since been allocated.
Douglas County, the city of Manhattan, the University of Kansas and Kansas State University were among the entities that took advantage of Westar’s 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour fuel rate offer for a 20-year term.
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