Kansas Transmission Line Project Back In Mix

DAVID TWIDDY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A proposed ultra high-voltage power line in southern Kansas is back on the drawing board after a regional planning body decided Tuesday to keep it a priority.

The board of the Southwest Power Pool board, which oversees the energy transmission grid in nine states, voted to put the project back on its priority list during a meeting held in Tulsa, Okla.

A strategic planning committee earlier this month removed the project, attracting concern from Kansas leaders who worried such a delay could endanger the state's fledgling wind energy industry.

The proposed $653 million line would run in a V-shape from Spearville and Wichita to Commanche at the Oklahoma border and then down to a substation near Woodward, Okla. It would be designed to accommodate 765-kilovolt transmission lines, the first west of the Mississippi River. Currently, the highest voltage line in Kansas is 345 kilovolts and the system would initially run at that capacity.

Following additional study and engineering work, the board and a committee of state regulators are scheduled to consider approving the projects for construction in January.