"We are pleased that they're at least willing to engage in a
conversation now," Svaty said. "But we'd like to see the
conversation focused on the project at hand."
Westar spokeswoman Karla Olsen acknowledged that the plan was
just a proposal but said the company felt it should file the plan
with the KCC to keep the regulators informed.
"We are offering a compromise proposal hoping that if it is
accepted by ITC Great Plains that the whole process will move
forward," Olsen said. "As a regulated company, you want to be
transparent to your regulatory body."
Both companies contemplate lines of up to 765 kilovolts, larger
than anything in region -- or most of the country. The new lines
could carry up to six times as much electricity as the biggest
existing lines in the area.
The developers argue that their proposals are a step toward a
necessary upgrading of the region's transmission system. Officials
and environmentalists also believe new lines are needed to move
wind power from sparsely populated areas to where customers live --
and perhaps across the nation.
ITC announced its plans first, in July 2007, and hopes to have
its lines up in 2011. Westar and its partners announced in May that
they had formed Prairie Wind Transmission to build high-voltage
lines by 2013.
, based in Novi, Mich.
It has transmission lines mostly in Michigan but also Illinois,
,
.
Its V-shaped, 180-mile route would drop from the Wichita area,
through Medicine Lodge to the Kansas-Oklahoma border, then run up
to the Dodge City area.
In Prairie Wind, Westar is involved with subsidiaries of
American Electric Power, based in
,
, and
, of Des Moines, Iowa. MidAmerican is a unit of
billionaire investor
's Omaha, Neb.-based
Prairie Wind envisions a 230-mile, Y-shaped track. The first
part would be from Wichita to Medicine Lodge; from there, separate
legs would go to the border and to Dodge City.
Under the compromise proposal, Prairie Wind would build a
175-mile line between Wichita and Liberal and then extend it 25
miles from Medicine Lodge to the Oklahoma border.
ITC's line would go 35 miles from the intersection of Clark,
Comanche and Kiowa counties to Spearville and then 145 miles north
to the
border.
"Here's an opportunity for everyone to accomplish what they
want to accomplish," Olsen said.
But Svaty said ITC already has laid much of the groundwork for
the line to Nebraska and that doesn't require a deal with Prairie
Wind to get built. She also said parts of the proposal -- such as
the route between Wichita and Liberal -- have not been studied by
the Southwestern Power Pool, an organization designated by federal
officials to oversee the electric grid in the area.
"We have committed to following the Southwestern Power Pool
process and we'd ask Prairie Wind to do the same in the development
of their plan," she said.
Svaty added that ITC offered a compromise in September where
Prairie Wind would build 60 miles of the 180-mile route between
Wichita and Medicine Lodge.
Westar refused the offer, Olsen said, "because our partners are
the only ones with the experience to do that kind of line."
Cost for the project has been estimated at $2.2 million per
mile.
The KCC has been reviewing the competing proposals and said it
might not pick a winning bidder until late next year. That has
angered state legislators and industry officials who said that was
too slow.

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