Westar Receives Approval of Transmission Route

Westar Energy, Inc.

today received route approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission for a transmission project that will improve electric reliability and efficiency in central Kansas and ensure electricity is available to support economic growth in the area.  "This line will allow for the expansion of industrial, commercial and residential loads in the Cloud County area by alleviating a constraint created by the possibility of a failure of the present line," Lowell Thoman, President, Cloud Corp, said in a letter to Westar.  When complete in late 2016, the high-voltage 345-kilovolt transmission line will connect Westar Energy's Summit Substation, about 5 miles northeast of Assaria to the Elm Creek substation, about 4 miles northwest of Aurora. Westar Energy will construct and own the southern half of the line. ITC Great Plains, in partnership with Mid-Kansas, will construct the northern half of the line in Cloud and Ottawa counties and co-own and operate this section of the line with Mid-Kansas.  Westar proposed a route for the line after conducting an engineering study and meeting with area landowners to