Transmission line through region gets site permit from regulators
May 29—Construction could begin soon on a large transmission line that will travel through Southeast Kansas and end in Southwest Missouri.
The Kansas Corporation Commission recently approved by a 2-1 vote a siting permit establishing the route for the Wolf Creek to Blackberry 345 kilovolt line. The 94-mile line will run between the Wolf Creek substation in Coffee County, Kansas, and the Blackberry substation on the western side of Jasper County. The latter is owned by Associated Electric Cooperative, which is based in Springfield and provides power to 51 cooperatives in parts of Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa.
Approximately 83 miles of the line will be in Kansas, crossing Coffey, Anderson, Allen, Bourbon and Crawford counties.
NextEra Energy Transmission Southwest, which is based in Florida, will construct and operate the line.
Alyssa Ten Eyck, with NextEra Energy Transmission, said in a statement that the transmission line has already received approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission for its part of the project.
"We continue to work closely with landowners and stakeholders as we prepare for the construction phase, which is expected to be complete in early 2025," she said in a statement.
The proposal has generated controversy and lawsuits in Kansas, after the Kansas Corporation Commission granted the transmission company a certificate of convenience and necessity, allowing it do business in the state as a public utility. With that came the power of eminent domain once the route was approved. According to the commission, the regulatory approval steps have been made "after determining that the transmission project will benefit customers by lowering overall energy costs, removing inefficiency, relieving transmission congestion and improving the reliability of the transmission system."
Ten Eyck said the line will contain above-ground transmission structures that will be about 110 feet tall, with 150-foot easements.
"The structures and easements may vary by location based on a number of factors such as environmental constraints, civil and engineering details, public feedback, requirements from the independent system operator, etc.." she said.
Becky Walding, who leads all development projects for NextEra, previously told the Globe that the company is working to make the line "visually acceptable." She also said the 150-foot easement means it has to be 150 feet away from homes and businesses, and that repair crews also need access to the line "in critical events."
According to the Kansas Corporation Commission, the Wolf Creek-to-Blackberry project originated from the Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices on behalf of its members. Kansas and Missouri are among the 17 states served by the Southwest Power Pool.
Walding said the project has been identified by the regional Southwest Power Pool as an "economic" necessity project, in that there is power generation in Kansas that is bottled up because there is not adequate transmission capacity to take it to where the demand is.
Although the line will originate at a substation near the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant just east of Burlington, Kansas, the transmission line will move electricity from various sources, including wind, coal and nuclear.
NEET Southwest was formed in 2014 to construct, own and operate transmission lines in the Southwest Power Pool region.
"The area has been the site of historic and projected congestion on the (extra-high voltage) system and has had unresolved transmission limits identified in multiple studies," NextEra stated in its filing with the Missouri PSC, adding that existing transmission lines are old, have high outage rates and have other limitations.
