KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 26, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Customers throughout Aquila's Missouri Public Service area, including the fast-growing communities in Cass County, are benefiting from the additional electricity generated at the South Harper Peaking Facility, located near Peculiar, Mo. During the hottest hours Monday through Thursday of last week, the South Harper facility provided approximately 15 percent of Aquila's Missouri electricity -- enough to cool more than 50,000 homes. In addition, Aquila had no heat-related power outages as a result of transmission issues.
Ivan Vancas, operating vice president of Aquila's Missouri Electric business, said, "We are thankful for the site-specific approval granted by the Missouri Public Service Commission for our South Harper Peaking Facility. The ability to access and operate this peaking facility at a time when we were experiencing record demand for electricity made it possible to meet the peak electric usage of our Missouri customers economically and reliably.
"In addition to lowering the risk of service interruptions, South Harper's capacity substantially reduces our need to buy power on the open market," he said. During last week's excessive temperatures, purchased power on the open market sold for as much as two to three times the cost of power generation at South Harper.
South Harper has been operating to meet peak demand since the Cass County Appellate Court granted permission for the facility to resume operations in June. As demand for electricity reached record levels, South Harper operated at near capacity during the hottest hours. Usage among Aquila customers peaked on July 17 and, again, two days later, when at 4 p.m. on July 19, hourly peak electricity demand reached 1,941 megawatts (MW), and the accumulative daily demand peaked at 37,359 megawatt-hours (MWh). In addition to setting a new annual peak, demand exceeded Aquila's previous historic records of 1,861 MW and 35,282 MWh on August 21, 2003.
With temperatures forecasted to spike again, coupled with increasing customer demand for electricity, it is imperative that utilities are able to construct facilities such as South Harper that are necessary to meet the growing demand and provide the service reliability customers expect.
Aquila serves approximately 300,000 electric customers in Missouri. Based in Kansas City, Mo., the company provides electricity and natural gas service to approximately 1 million customers in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.
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