Westar Energy Moving Forward with Major Infrastructure Improvements to Prepare for Future Energy Demands

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Westar Energy (NYSE:WR)(Topeka, Kansas) is proceeding with plans to improve existing power plants and add new generation to meet future energy demands for customers in the state of Kansas. The plans involve not only constructing new generation, but also improving air quality at existing plants and improving transmission capacity.

Recently, Westar announced plans to construct a 600-megawatt (MW) peaking plant near Emporia, Kansas in Lyon County. The new plant will house four aeroderivative natural gas-fired simple cycle combustion turbine generator sets and three heavy frame F-class combustion turbine generators. Black and Veatch (Overland Park, Kansas) has been selected to provide engineering for the project. A general contractor or multiple subcontractors will be selected later this year or early next. Construction is planned to kick off in 2007 in order to begin operations in 2008. A site has been selected six miles northeast of Emporia off County Road 200.

In addition to the new natural gas-fired peaking plant, Westar is also conducting site studies to determine a favorable site to build a new 600 to 800-megawatt pulverized coal-fired base load plant. Plans are to begin construction of the new coal-fired plant in 2009 in order to begin commercial operation in 2013.

Not only is the company planning to bolster generating capacity, but they also plan to upgrade existing generating plants in order to reduce emissions. Work is well underway at the Jeffrey Energy Center to upgrade existing Flue Gas Desulfurization Scrubbers, which are currently idled. Burns & McDonnell has been selected to provide engineering for the project. This project will involve upgrading and restarting the existing scrubbers that support three ALSTOM tangentially-fired boilers. A new limestone preparation area will be constructed, vacuum and recycle pumps will be replaced, and there will be major chimney modifications performed. Later this year, Westar along with Burns & McDonnell will release bids for multiple contractors for the project. Construction is expected to begin next year. Completion will take place in phases starting with Unit 1 in the spring of 2008, Unit 3 in the fall of 2008 and Unit 2 in the spring of 2009. In addition to the work at Jeffrey, there are also plans to install a baghouse for the 403 MW Unit 5 at the Lawrence Energy Center. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2007, with completion and tie-ins planned for 2008.

Development is also underway for a new 345kV transmission line. The proposed transmission line is expected to run from near the Gordon Evans Energy Center to the Wichita area. The potential route for the new transmission line is currently under study.

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