ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Seward County Commission has been locked in recent discussions with Invenergy regarding wind energy production, and Tuesday evening, the Liberal City Commission got the chance to hear from Invenergy itself.
“As you all know, Invenergy is a leading independent, global developer and operator of clean energy solutions. They have approached the City of Liberal with a Transmission Easement Agreement,” Liberal City Manager Scarlette Diseker began. “In order to get the project moving, this agreement needs to be approved by the Liberal City Commission. This project will take place, regardless of the result of the county's ongoing negotiations with the company.”
Allegiant Land Services Project Manager Justin Robinson then spoke to the commission.
“We are in the process of putting together a secondary wind project in Seward County. We've currently got the Thresher wind project, which is about a 1.2-gigawatt project, and it's moving into the construction phase at the moment,” Robinson said. “The project on hand now is what we're calling the Thresher gen-tie project, which is about 55,000 acres of land we're currently trying to acquire owner acquisition for a wind energy lease. With this particular transmission line route, we've already got a key position with Sunflower Electric and the substation location there just west of Kismet. There are three parcels of land the City of Liberal owns, one of which is adjacent to the tract of land where the substation is located, so we would be essentially coming out of that substation entering into that first tract of land owned by the city, and then we would be progressing north back to the east, and we would want to try and run that line adjacent to the existing county road there to minimize the impact on any operations. I believe that land is currently used for grazing purposes, and our transmission line would have very minimal impact on that.”
Robinson continued giving further details about the project.
“We're looking at a probably 345 KV line, which is a single steel pole and three transistors, which would hold three lines that would run across there, and that would bring power from those turbines into that substation or grid location to offload the power there,” Robinson said. “And in good faith, we will pay a total of $56,307.20 that would be payable 60 days immediately following the execution of the agreement with us. That is in good faith – whether or not we build the line, the City of Liberal would retain those funds and would not be responsible for paying those back regardless of whether the line gets built or not. The additional funds at the end of this installment, should everything come fully to fruition, would be a second installment of $225,228.80, and that would be paid within 60 days prior to the commencement of construction on the line.”
City Attorney Lynn Koehn then shared his thoughts with the commission.
“Brad [Beer], Scarlette and I had discussed this quite a bit. It's kind of a long-term contract for the contractors' initial six-year period of term followed by a 25-year term and then another 25 with the discretion of whether or not they want to execute that additional term,” Koehn said. “The total estimated compensation would be $281,536, and that will go up and down maybe a little bit depending on what line they use. Because of the actual linear feet that goes on the route shown in Exhibit A1 in the agenda packet. Something else I'd want to note is with the contract in front of you, in Exhibit A, with the description of the property, that's not part of the packet because we got the legal description a little bit later, but it is in the final contract, which I gave to Scarlette. Potentially, they could have a line that doesn't go along that road, it could go anywhere they need it to, but the city would be compensated based on linear feet.”
“And the diagram before the commission is our estimate for what we would propose the route to be,” Robinson added. “Obviously, we would have to do the environmental impact studies, soil samples and work of that nature that could modify that route. But based on the knowledge we currently have, that would be the proposed route we'd like to work with.”
“Is there anything in the contract that would stop us from leasing the same land for another transmission a certain distance from them?” Liberal Mayor Jose Lara asked. “I ask because something that had come through my mind was with Apex and whether or not they would need to have something set up in that area, so I just wanted to be sure how that would work.”
“That would be subject to their easement, so potentially yes. If they're wanting to put in another potential pathway, they have that ability. I don't think they would, but that would be up to them later if something comes up,” Koehn said. “It would all be subject to their easement, and there would probably be written consent required because it could cause problems for future developers who might have a project there.”
“And this is required regardless of our conversations with the county, because we need this as part of the process in terms of getting the easement and all of that,” Robinson said.
Koehn then further clarified the project after a question from local citizen Reita Isaacs.
“What this does is it allows the company to lay a line on city-owned property east of town, but Invenergy still has to get what they need in order to get those windmill facilities put up,” Koehn said. “If they can't get enough farmers to agree to put up the facilities, then the project may die. But the city is going to get an up-front cost, and if they don't get enough buy-in from landowners, they'll have to decide if it's worth pursuing the project or not. This contract just allows for the easement so they can build for six years. After those six years, they have the option of saying 'We didn't get those contracts from the farmers, so we're going to cancel the contract with the city.' Or, if they do get enough and want to continue, they have a 25-year extension and after that, another 25-year extension if they're producing.”
“And if repairs or rebuilding need to happen, Invenergy would be on the hook for that in terms of hauling everything away and the actual repair work,” Robinson said. “There are also some great blade recycling places and programs we can use, which is really nice because it used to be, unfortunately, the blades would be just hauled to the landfill. But there are some of those programs we use, to quell some of those rumors as well.”
Ultimately, the commission voted unanimously to approve the Transmission Easement Agreement between the City of Liberal and Invenergy Wind Development, LLC.
In other new business, the commission made a determination to allow 45 more calendar days for completion in the Ortuño housing addition and approved a Light Park project by All Inclusive Rec for the installation of fitness equipment and shade structure, and by Commercial Lawn Management for the installation of the playground grass in an amount not exceeding $180,000. Improvements to Leete Park were also approved, with the commission approving turf installation by Commercial Lawn Management. The commission also approved the purchase of a John Deere tractor in an amount not to exceed $70,000 from Keating Tractor and Implement, and accepted a bid from B&G Services in an amount not to exceed $50,000 for the construction of a fence at the Mid-America Air Museum. The commission also approved the reappointment of Amy Thompson to the Liberal Memorial Library Board and a dog park at the Liberal Animal Shelter.
