KCC OKs compromise on power line
Published on -7/26/2009, 11:04 PM
Printer-friendly version
E-Mail This Story
By MIKE CORN
The Kansas Corporation Commission has approved an agreement between two electric transmission companies wanting to build a high-power transmission line from Spearville to Wichita.
Both ITC Great Plains and Prairie Wind Transmission butted heads on the project when they both filed plans on the same line.
ITC just recently received permission from the KCC to build a separate line from Spearville to a substation to be built northwest of Hays, a line that will carry 345,000 volts. That line eventually will head north to the Nebraska line, ultimately reaching Axtell, Neb.
The line covered by Friday's action will carry 765,000 volts of electricity, the first line of its size to be built west of the Mississippi River.
Under the terms of the agreement approved by the KCC on Friday, ITC will build a line from Spearville to Medicine Lodge and south to Comanche County near the Oklahoma border. Prairie Wind will be responsible for construction of the line from Medicine Lodge to Wichita.
The line will be about 230 miles long.
ITC will build substations in Medicine Lodge and Spearville. Prairie Wind will build substations in Wichita and Medicine Lodge.
The conflict came about when ITC announced it had reached an agreement with Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Mid-Kansas Electric -- the cooperative that purchased Aquila's electric operations in the central part of Kansas -- to construct part of the extra-high voltage line, offering to let Prairie Wind build the rest of the line. Westar Energy partnered with Electric Transmission America to create Prairie Wind.
While the KCC has approved the compromise reached by ITC and Prairie Wind, it has not yet ruled on the actual construction of the line.
As was the case in the Spearville to Hays line, the KCC must sign off on the route to be followed for the line. Likely, public hearings will be conducted in the case.
The Southwest Power Pool, the federal traffic cop of electricity in the region, also must sign off on the project and determine how the cost will be repaid by users.
