Climate and energy

Hmm. Where to start.

At the beginning, I suppose, although when it comes to transmission lines in Kansas and the activities of the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority (KETA), we are smack dab in the middle of an already long story.

The reason I am telling it, in this level of detail, is because if you want wind power to come to Kansas, then you’re going to need transmission lines. No transmission lines, no wind. Pretty simple.

For those of you who need to get up to speed - and I know we now have a lot more younger folks reading the CEP blog, getting information for their class discussions about wind power - here’s the general cast of characters (and I apologize to those I am accidentally leaving out).

• KETA. Since KETA is a legislative authority, the majority of its members are legislators. If you follow energy politics in Kansas, these names will sound familiar - on the House side, the venerable Rep. Carl Holmes, Chairman of the House Energy and Utilities Committee, and ranking Democrat Rep. Annie Keuther (whose fans will remember her in part due to her pointed “pigs and lipstick” observations during last session’s coal debate. In terms of this metaphor, she was far ahead of Pres. Elect Obama). On the Senate side are their counterparts, Chairman and Senator Jay Emler and Senator Janis Lee. KETA’s mission is to foster transmission development in Kansas, and as I understand it, its creation was pretty much the brainchild of Chairman Holmes.
• KCC, the Kansas Corporation Commission. It helps to follow these debates if you keep the KCC Commissioners straight from the KCC staff. Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the — er, Senate. I believe. (Kids, go to kslegislature.org and doublecheck.) Staff is state employees. Commissioners come and go. Staff stays. The KCC has jurisdiction over regulated utilities and certain transmission issues in Kansas. As an administrative agency it’s a quasi-judicial authority that makes decisions based on legal proceedings called dockets. If the KCC can’t figure out an issue, then the parties involved can take it to state court. This all takes a really long time.
• SPP, the Southwest Power Pool. SPP is a Regional Transmission Organization who gets its authority from the federal government. SPP’s job is to be the traffic cop for electrons that flow through our grid, to make sure the electrons get to where they need to go safely, efficiently, and affordably. Their job is about as easy as buying a safe, fuel-efficient car with airbags for under $10,000 (ie, not easy at all). SPP’s job is to plan and approve the building of transmission lines - and to make sure the construction happens in a timely fashion. In some situations, they are the boss of the KCC, but exactly when and how is not yet clear because that particular power has not really been tested yet. It’s like a bright shiny new rifle, but no one has yet taken it out on the firing range. Everyone’s pretty sure the gun works, but do the sights need to be tweaked? Nobody knows.
• ITC Great Plains and Westar/ Prairie Wind. To cut a really long story short, these two companies want to build the same transmission line through southern Kansas, and they are fighting about it. This transmission line will be one of the biggest, most powerful, and most strategically placed lines in the entire United States. If it were an artery, it would be one of the ones that leads directly from your heart. We - Kansas, and our wind - we’re the heart.

Situation: SPP has approved the building of this particular transmission line, and they approved ITC Great Plains to do it. Then Westar/ Prairie Wind decided they wanted to build the line. They got to say that because part of the line would go through transmission territory they already controlled. Drama ensued. Legal briefs were filed. Things were said, and it is all on the Internet - go to the KCC website, click on Dockets, and search for these three docket numbers - 08-ITCE-937-COC, 08-ITCE-936-COC, and 08-ITCE-938-COC.

The KCC gets to sort this mess out. SPP’s job is to make sure the KCC sorts the mess out fast. KCC wants to sort the mess out right (meaning, their decision can stand up to scrutiny in state courts should the warring parties decide to take it there). KETA wants the KCC to sort the mess out fast AND right, and they are pretty much beside themselves that there has already been a year of delay in getting the transmission line underway.

Who is KETA mad at? On one level, everyone and no one. They can’t express a preference for who builds the line, their job is just to get people TO build the line. So they are generally displeased that the two companies are wasting time fighting, they are much less than happy with the KCC’s extended timetable for refereeing the dispute, and they aren’t very happy with SPP, either, because the SPP’s exhaustive planning process is sometimes extended, shall we say.

Basically, KETA is not happy - but they can’t really take it out on anyone directly on this issue in this forum. KETA’s powers are limited. The legislators’ powers, though, outside of KETA, are not so limited. If these four legislators on KETA get irritated enough, they stand a good chance of making something else happen during the legislative session. I don’t know what, but. That could potentially be an interesting wild card. (Not a likely one but I enjoy wild cards so I just mention it.)

Context: Two big things are happening - much bigger things than Kansas - that are putting enormous pressures on all parties involved in the dispute.

First, wind development in our part of the country is exploding. That’s not even a strong enough word. Lots of wind turbines going up, and the power needs to get OUT of the SPP region to buyers in Chicago, cities in the South, etc. - power-hungry cities who don’t have enough clean energy sources of their own. They have too little, we have too much, our region can’t possibly absorb all that wind. This means that transmission line development is going to have to explode, too - and Kansas wind exports are going to be competing with Oklahoma and Texas wind for space on these lines. We don’t exactly have a lot of time to wait around.

Second, though - transmission lines used to be pretty much just a state issue. The wind industry, and the possibility of a national Renewable Energy Standard (where a certain percentage of our energy has to come from clean sources), has made transmission a regional if not federal issue. This means that everyone’s jurisdictions are getting turned on their heads. State regulatory authorities are finding themselves in the position of being an extra barrier to getting regional transmission lines built.

So. Long story. Sorry about that! But hopefully the Live Blogging - Notes from the KETA meeting will now make more sense to those who have just come to the CEP blog

BTW, you can always write Commissioners and/or legislators to express your opinion on these issues. Your comments will become part of the public record.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org