A new solar energy system was completed at Sekan Printing Company, 2210 S. Main on August 5.
“We just finished commissioning the largest solar-battery system in Southeast Kansas — right here in Fort Scott at Sekan Printing,” said Daniel Zywietz, with SEK Solar.
“300 kW of solar plus 240 kWh of battery storage, cutting their demand charges.” said Zywietz.
The process
“Last October, Justin’s cousin put us in touch. Justin had a very high demand charge from Evergy and wanted to know if anything could be done about it. We spent a month or two looking into it and found the real problem was his demand peaks — short, heavy stretches where his power use spikes. A battery handles peaks well, but it can’t carry a long peak on its own. So the answer was solar and battery together.”
The presses at SeKan run from 5:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, five days a week, according to a press release from SEK Solar. The heaviest draw does not come from the presses themselves. It comes from drying. Full-color work means laying ink down in layers and curing each layer before the next one goes on, and that pulls hard and steadily for half an hour at a time, with bigger draws on top of it. A good share of it happens early, before the sun is high. The solar makes the power. The battery holds it and puts it out across those long, heavy stretches. Together they match the way the plant actually runs.
That matters on a commercial power bill. Businesses on Evergy’s medium and large general service rates pay for the electricity they use, and they also pay on the heaviest half-hour they hit in the month. That peak charge can be most of the bill. A system with solar and storage together can bring both down.
The project took bout nine to ten months start to finish, he said. “We put the battery in first, at the end of last year, since it tackled the demand charges right away. The solar took longer: Evergy approvals, a cold first quarter, and a lot of integration. It’s a complex system, with battery inverters, batteries, solar, and a separate meter monitoring the whole thing.”
About ten people helped with the project.
“The mechanical crew installing solar on the roof, the electricians on the ground, and the controls and programming folks. Not all at once, but roughly ten involved overall, ” he said.
There were federal tax credits for the project.
” For commercial and industrial systems, the federal tax credit is still in place — 30% of the system cost — and businesses can also depreciate the system on an accelerated schedule, which adds up to a significant additional write-off. Some projects can qualify for extra credit on top through domestic-content and energy-community bonuses.
“One timing note worth knowing: a commercial system started now needs to be up and running by the end of 2027 to capture the credit, so this is the window.
“On the residential side, the federal tax credit ended December 31, 2025, so there’s no longer a federal credit for homeowners — home systems now stand on their own economics and the value of battery backup.”
Other Fort Scott businesses that have gone solar with SEK Solar:
– 110 South Main / Cohn’s Cafe (Kathy and Tracy Dancer)
– Great Expectations, (Matthew Wells)
– Hole in the Wall Liquor (Roy Hoehner)
– Sekan Printi