Kansas landowners push back on power line project as regulators cite reliability needs

The Kansas Corporation Commission's three-member board will decide by May 13 whether to approve or stop construction of the Buffalo Flats transmission line, designed to go through four Kansas counties. (Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Kansas utility regulators are weighing the benefits and costs of approving construction of a $493 million transmission line that would travel through four southwest counties.

Multiple Kansas landowners protested the line’s construction and route during nearly three days of hearings in March at the Kansas Corporation Commission, which will make a decision on the proposal by May 13. They contend the line will disrupt agricultural activities, harm the environment and offer few benefits for Kansans.

Utility officials said the line is necessary to provide electricity stability for Kansas, as well as 13 other member states in the Southwest Power Pool. Rapid growth in energy usage and grid challenges that occurred during 2021 Winter Storm Uri require improvements to the grid, they said.

The 345-kV transmission line will travel 133 miles through Cowley, Chautauqua, Sedgwick and Sumner counties, part of a larger 316-mile plan. The line stretches from the Buffalo Flats substation near Garden Plain to the Oklahoma border, just north of Delaware, Oklahoma, and is expected to be operational by 2029, KCC filings said.

Evergy was selected through a no-bid contract to build the line in Kansas, and American Electric Power Co. Inc. will build the Oklahoma section, filings said.

Cole Bailey, Evergy corporate counsel, told commissioners the transmission line is part of the Southwest Power Pool’s integrated transmission plan, which considers projected utility usage and needed infrastructure to ensure system reliability.

SPP is a regional transmission organization, one of seven approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as nonprofit agencies that oversee transmission infrastructure, ensure utility system reliability and manage the wholesale electricity market.

Energy usage will nearly double during the next decade in its 14-state region, which includes Kansas, according to SPP projections compiled by talking with its member utilities.

 

Public input

Bailey said when SPP identified the need for a new transmission line, Evergy held open houses and hearings that included landowners. Company officials looked at more than 1 million possible routes, cut that down to 100,000 and then scored each one on a variety of factors before putting forward the route submitted to the KCC, he said.  

Commissioner Dwight Keen questioned the environmental impact of the line, which will traverse one of the last contiguous areas of tallgrass prairie in North America.

Keen asked about potential effects of the transmission line, including interfering with farm and ranch land and activities, disturbing wildlife habitat and possibly harming areas of historical and archeological significance.

“Evergy has decades of experience building and operating and maintaining transmission lines throughout the Flint Hills,” Bailey said. “Currently, Evergy owns and operates over 1,000 miles of transmission lines and nearly 400 miles of 345-kV transmission lines in the Flint Hills. This project will only add 35 miles to that tally.”

Bailey said the company restores damaged prairie grass in areas that are disturbed, and for this project, the company will hire a consultant to develop best practices to restore Flint Hills areas that are disrupted.

“The SPP estimates that the line will save about $2 million in annual fuel cost because it will relieve congestion on the power grid in south-central Kansas,” said Evergy spokeswoman Gina Penzig in an email. “SPP’s cost models show the line will pay for itself by 2034.”

 

Landowners resist

Attorney James Zakoura represented multiple landowners at the KCC hearings, telling commissioners that trees dating back to the 1700s would be destroyed during line construction. He described one property, Spring Hill Farm, southwest of Winfield, and said the line will cross an area with limestone bluffs and where there are three eagle nests.

“Evergy’s proposed transmission line will require the destruction of hundreds if not thousands of ancient trees and endanger the most scenic pond,” Zakoura said. “The pond is vital for livestock.”

The transmission line would dissect these areas and place at least 205 80- to 160-foot high towers that would destroy the view, he said.

Zakoura argued the transmission line doesn’t directly benefit Kansas consumers and shouldn’t go through the state.

Vance Freeman, a Texas oil and gas lawyer, said the line will cut through four miles of “pristine” grassland on his family’s 9,000-acre ranch in Cedar Vale. In studying the case, Freeman said he appreciates that SPP focuses on reliability.

Freeman’s home in Longview, Texas, is in SPP territory. During Winter Storm Yuri, when much of Texas lost power, Freeman said he had power because of the SPP. But he asked KCC commissioners to stand up for Kansans in deciding whether to approve the transmission line.

Freeman noted that Evergy makes money for every mile of the line in the state, and as a publicly traded company, it has to maximize shareholder profits. The company will profit through its return on equity that cannot exceed 10.3%, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

“Your priorities are clear. I think that somebody has to look out for Kansas and the citizens of Kansas, and balance the for-profit interest of Evergy with the concerns of the landowners that are in this room,” Freeman told KCC commissioners.

 

Ranching effects

Freeman said he heard “erroneous” testimony about the transmission line effects on the Flint HIlls, including that “you can just go and throw some seed on the ground and grow this tallgrass prairie back.”

“That’s just not true,” Freeman said. “You can’t do that. After these prairies are disturbed, you can’t graze them for three years because it’s so sensitive to impact.”

Freeman called for the project to be publicly bid, rather than given to Evergy.

Seth Blomeley, spokesman for SPP, said in an email the reason for giving the bid to Evergy directly is the urgent need for the transmission line.

“Competitive bidding requirements can add more than a year to a project’s completion,” he said, adding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows exceptions to public bids when projects need to come online quickly to maintain system reliability.

“The line in question was needed within three years,” Blomeley said. “Therefore, the project was assigned to the utility handling transmission in the area.”

Freeman also said the transmission line will interfere with ranchers’ ability to spray aerially to control invasive plant species. He said it was frustrating to hear people talk about how few miles were affected, especially when those testifying said all competing interests were considered.

“I love the tallgrass prairie,” Freeman said. “This will significantly impact the way that land is used in the tallgrass prairie all the way along this line.”

Freeman and other ranchers testifying told commissioners to take the extra time needed to make their decisions. 

“This could cause permanent damage to one of the greatest assets Kansas has,” Freeman said.

Cowley County rancher William Mueller also raised concerns about the tallgrass prairie being damaged, along with views on his farm that he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain. In addition, he said, some studies show that electromagnetic fields affect cattle and their reproductive systems, although they aren’t definitive.

Research on electromagnetic fields and cattle, summarized for the past three decades, found behavioral changes in cattle, and some studies found effects on reproduction.

 

Costs

Evergy Kansas Central ratepayers will pay for about $5.5 million in costs associated with the Buffalo Flats section, which would raise average residential customer rates by $3.37 per year in 2029, declining each year after that because of depreciation, KCC filings said. The average is based on monthly usage of 1,000 kilowatts per hour.

The company’s return on equity of 10.3%, called out by Freeman, is calculated into the above costs, Penzig said.

Evergy Kansas Central’s coverage extends from the state’s eastern border to just west of Wichita.

The total Kansas allocation for costs is 16%, with 9.36% of that allocated to Evergy Kansas Central. The remainder will be paid by Evergy customers outside of the central area, Penzig said.