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Southwest Kansas is rich in potential for wind energy, but there aren’t enough transmission lines to carry the power from this region to other parts of the country.
Several utilities are working on plans to address the problem by building electric transmission lines in southwest Kansas.
And now, a Houston-based company wants to join the game.
Clean Line Energy Partners announced plans Tuesday to build the Grain Belt Express, a 3,500-megawatt transmission line stretching from Spearville to the St. Louis area. The nearly 600-mile line would ship power from the region’s wind farms to southeast Missouri and beyond.
The company predicts the new transmission line will spur development of more than 4,000 megawatts’ worth of new wind farms in southwest Kansas.
Existing wind farms won’t be operating at peak capacity all the time, said Clean Line project manager Diana Coggin. So additional wind farms may spring up so developers can take advantage of the new transmission line.
“Kansas has this vast resource, and this project will help it to get developed a little bit further,” she said during a meeting with the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp. board of directors. “Well, four times as much as it already is in Kansas. So we’re really excited about that.”
Clean Line is developing plans for the line and applying for status as a Kansas utility. The company is also discussing the project with state and local leaders and working with environmental agencies to determine possible routes.
Preliminary stages
The company expects to file a land-siting application including the proposed route with the KCC in 2012, and construction will begin sometime in 2013.
Construction is expected to last three years, and the company is hoping the $1.7 billion line will be up and running by late 2016.
The company estimates it will spend about $730 million in Kansas during construction, which will create roughly 5,000 temporary jobs. Once the line is in service, the company estimates it will spend $9 million annually on operations and maintenance.
The company predicts the completed line will create more than 500 permanent jobs.
Additionally, the company estimates that the line will spur $7 billion in new wind farm investments.
“As you can see, this project has a lot of opportunity for Kansas wrapped into it,” Coggin said. “And particularly right around here. Spearville and Ford County — this is going to be the hub of where the wind farms develop.”
The company would recover its construction costs by selling transmission capacity to renewable-power suppliers and their customers.
If the project moves forward, Clean Line would join other utilities that are developing high-voltage transmission lines in southwest Kansas.
The Topeka-based company ITC Great Plains is teaming up with Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Mid-Kansas Electric Co. to build two segments of the Kansas V-Plan, a 345,000-volt transmission line from Spearville to Medicine Lodge. Prairie Wind Transmission will build the third section from Medicine Lodge to Wichita.
ITC Great Plains is also building a high-voltage line from Spearville to just north of Hays — the first section of a larger project that would ultimately run from Spearville to Axtell, Neb.
But Coggin said Wednesday the Grain Belt Express line would not compete with the other projects to export power from Spearville. She said the ITC projects would deliver power to states in the Southwest Power Pool, while the Clean Line project would serve markets outside the pool.
Southwest Kansas is rich in potential for wind energy, but there aren’t enough transmission lines to carry the power from this region to other parts of the country.
Several utilities are working on plans to address the problem by building electric transmission lines in southwest Kansas.
And now, a Houston-based company wants to join the game.
Clean Line Energy Partners announced plans Tuesday to build the Grain Belt Express, a 3,500-megawatt transmission line stretching from Spearville to the St. Louis area. The nearly 600-mile line would ship power from the region’s wind farms to southeast Missouri and beyond.
The company predicts the new transmission line will spur development of more than 4,000 megawatts’ worth of new wind farms in southwest Kansas.
Existing wind farms won’t be operating at peak capacity all the time, said Clean Line project manager Diana Coggin. So additional wind farms may spring up so developers can take advantage of the new transmission line.
“Kansas has this vast resource, and this project will help it to get developed a little bit further,” she said during a meeting with the Dodge City/Ford County Development Corp. board of directors. “Well, four times as much as it already is in Kansas. So we’re really excited about that.”
Clean Line is developing plans for the line and applying for status as a Kansas utility. The company is also discussing the project with state and local leaders and working with environmental agencies to determine possible routes.
Preliminary stages
The company expects to file a land-siting application including the proposed route with the KCC in 2012, and construction will begin sometime in 2013.
Construction is expected to last three years, and the company is hoping the $1.7 billion line will be up and running by late 2016.
The company estimates it will spend about $730 million in Kansas during construction, which will create roughly 5,000 temporary jobs. Once the line is in service, the company estimates it will spend $9 million annually on operations and maintenance.
The company predicts the completed line will create more than 500 permanent jobs.
Additionally, the company estimates that the line will spur $7 billion in new wind farm investments.
“As you can see, this project has a lot of opportunity for Kansas wrapped into it,” Coggin said. “And particularly right around here. Spearville and Ford County — this is going to be the hub of where the wind farms develop.”
The company would recover its construction costs by selling transmission capacity to renewable-power suppliers and their customers.
If the project moves forward, Clean Line would join other utilities that are developing high-voltage transmission lines in southwest Kansas.
The Topeka-based company ITC Great Plains is teaming up with Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Mid-Kansas Electric Co. to build two segments of the Kansas V-Plan, a 345,000-volt transmission line from Spearville to Medicine Lodge. Prairie Wind Transmission will build the third section from Medicine Lodge to Wichita.
ITC Great Plains is also building a high-voltage line from Spearville to just north of Hays — the first section of a larger project that would ultimately run from Spearville to Axtell, Neb.
But Coggin said Wednesday the Grain Belt Express line would not compete with the other projects to export power from Spearville. She said the ITC projects would deliver power to states in the Southwest Power Pool, while the Clean Line project would serve markets outside the pool.
