By CHRIS GREEN

Harris News Service

TOPEKA -- Key legislators say they won't be picking sides when it comes to an unusual competition between two utilities wanting to build electric transmission lines through southwest Kansas.

This past week, the president of one of those companies asked the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority, which tries to spur upgrades to the state's power grid, to get behind a compromise offer designed to end the battle over the lines.

But lawmakers serving on that board said they didn't think it would be appropriate for them to indicate support for a particular proposal.

"We don't make that decision," said state Sen. Janis Lee, D-Kensington, a member of the seven-member transmission authority. "It's not our place to be involved."

Two firms, ITC Great Plains and Westar Energy, are vying to construct a V-shaped series of high-voltage lines, part of an overall plan that would significantly upgrade the region's transmission capacity.

It's the first time, state utility regulators note, they've seen two entities compete for the right to build the same transmission line.

A case that could decide which company will be allowed to build the transmission lines is unfolding before the Kansas Corporation Commission, which regulates the state's largest utilities. Staff members for the agency are presently collecting information and will issue a report on the case next month.

Electric power providers in central and western Kansas announced an agreement Tuesday evening that would allow ITC Great Plains, the subsidiary of a Michigan company, to build the two segments of the V-plan entirely inside their service territories.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Mid-Kansas Electric Co., both based in Hays and run by the same six rural electric cooperatives, also offered Westar the chance to build the plan's third segment.

ITC Great Plains, which only builds power lines and doesn't generate its own electricity, would own and operate lines running from Spearville to Comanche County and then on into Barber County. The cooperatives would maintain the lines.

Under the deal, Westar, investor-owned and the state's largest electric utility, would be given the final leg, which would cross several miles into Westar's territory as it runs from Medicine Lodge to just outside Wichita.

ITC Great Plains President Carl Huslig told members of the authority that he believed the proposal was a great settlement and urged them to get behind it.

"If you believe so, I would hope that you would be out vocally supporting such a statement so we can get this done," Huslig said.

A Westar official, however, expressed no interest in the compromise during an interview earlier this week.

Jim Ludwig, a Westar vice president, said his company still wanted to build the entire line. He said the company's joint venture with other firms, Prairie Wind Transmission, was the best candidate to construct the project.

He also said it would be up to state utility regulators to determine who would build the lines.

However, Huslig said authority members should support the compromise because it might speed the construction of a crucial project. The plan could bring a 765-kilovolt line to Kansas and would be the most electrified line west of the Mississippi River.

The line could bring cheaper power to rural areas in western Kansas -- which tend to pay higher electric rates than urban areas in eastern Kansas -- and allow further development of wind energy production in the region, he said.

"Renewables are going to be capped without this transmission line," Huslig said.

No end in sight

ITC Great Plains was the first of the two companies to propose the line. But Westar sought dismissal of their rival's plan in May and proposed to build its own similar project.

Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, was quoted in a press release announcing the settlement proposal involving Sunflower Electric, Mid-Kansas Electric and ITC Great Plains.

But he said later that he doesn't actually favor one company's bid over the other.

Sloan noted that under the rules of the Southwest Power Pool, the regional transmission planning board for the middle section of the nation's grid, the Sunflower cooperatives have the right to choose whether they build lines proposed for their service territories.

The agreement, he said, shows that Sunflower's cooperatives have made the decision that they want ITC Great Plains to build the lines wholly inside their territories. They've also extended an offer to Westar for lines spanning the two provider's service zones.

"I'm just concerned that we get the transmission built sooner, rather than later," Sloan said.

But Westar officials are contending before the KCC that they have a legal right to refuse ITC Great Plains' entire transmission proposal, even the parts not extending into its areas. Westar wants to the lines so it can expand its system's use of wind power from central and western Kansas.

The authority's chairman, Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, said his panel would keep a close eye on developments in the competition involving Westar and ITC Great Plains.

But he said he didn't think it would help for the authority to add to the number of entities directly involved in deciding which company builds the transmission lines.

"I think KETA has a role to monitor and stay on top of the what the KCC is doing," as well as keep track of the Southwest Power Pool, Holmes said.

Another transmission authority member, Sen. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg, said he also thought remaining neutral was the best option for the authority.

He said he's not concerned that the ongoing case over the power lines would ultimately result in delays that force the project to be scrapped.

"I think it's going to get built," Emler said of the project. "The issue is: 'Who's going to build it?' "

Huslig said he was just making a suggestion to the authority when asked them to get behind the settlement involving ITC Great Plains. He said it was up to members of the board to decide how to respond to it.

He said the deal involving his firm would've sped resolution of the power-line dispute, which will now continue without any clear end in sight.

"I would not be surprised if it dragged out into early next year," Huslig said.