Westar Energy Partnering with Electric Transmission America for the Development of Wind Power in Kansas

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Westar Energy Incorporated (NYSE:WR) (Topeka, Kansas) is partnering with Electric Transmission America LLC (ETA) in a 50:50 joint venture to create Prairie Wind Transmission LLC. Electric Transmission America is itself a joint venture of American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP) (Columbus, Ohio) and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (Des Moines, Iowa), a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated (NYSE:BRK.A) (Omaha, Nebraska). Prairie Wind Transmission plans to construct a 230-mile, 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission infrastructure to improve the ability of windfarms to tie in to the electrical grid.

Westar Energy has a goal of producing 500 megawatts (MW) of wind power by 2010. The company has contracts to build almost 300 MW of windfarms and wants to build another 200 MW by 2010. Wind developers in Kansas have proposed 25 projects with a total generating capacity of about 3,800 MW. The estimated combined total investment value of these windfarms, if built, would be $7.6 billion. In order for all of these projects to function, additional transmission resources would be needed.

Prairie Wind Transmission is proposing the 765-kV transmission lines at a cost of about $600 million. The ultra-high-voltage 765-kV lines will transmit about six times as much power as 345-kV lines within the same environmental footprint. The new transmission line will tie in to the Southwest Power Pool grid, which operates in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Construction timing will be dictated by regulatory approval, but is anticipated to kick off in 2009, with a 2013 completion date.

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