KCC partially approves Evergy transmission line, orders new route to protect Flint Hills
Regulators greenlight the western half of the Buffalo Flats project but send the utility back to the drawing board to avoid ecological and oil lease disruptions in southeast Kansas.
TOPEKA, Kan. — State utility regulators have ordered Evergy to redesign the eastern portion of a major 345-kilovolt transmission line through southeast Kansas, citing the need to protect the Flint Hills and avoid interfering with local oil and gas leases.
The Kansas Corporation Commission on Tuesday approved the overall necessity of the Buffalo Flats to Delaware transmission line, acknowledging its economic development benefits and role in bolstering grid reliability. Regulators split their decision on the project's route, however, approving the western leg while rejecting the eastern route.
The project, part of the Southwest Power Pool's Branson Overlay Project, is designed to run from the Buffalo Flats Substation near Garden Plain through Sedgwick, Sumner, Cowley and Chautauqua counties before terminating at the Delaware Substation in Oklahoma.
The KCC found substantial evidence to approve Evergy's proposed route from Garden Plain to where the line intersects U.S. Route 77 in Cowley County.
But regulators found insufficient evidence to justify the remainder of the route from U.S. 77 to the Oklahoma border. The commission denied that portion of the application and directed Evergy to conduct a new routing study.
The KCC strongly urged the utility to parallel the existing U.S. Route 166 right-of-way "to the maximum extent feasible." Aligning the transmission structures with the existing highway corridor would significantly reduce permanent impacts to the Flint Hills — a unique and ecologically sensitive region — and minimize disruptions to active oil and gas extraction sites, the commission said.
The decision underscores a recurring tension in Kansas energy policy between the need to modernize regional power grid infrastructure and pushback from landowners, conservationists and the state's traditional energy sectors.
Because Evergy must now draw up a new route for the line's eastern half, the KCC has ordered the company to propose an updated procedural schedule by June 12, 2026.
The new timeline will trigger additional statutory requirements, including a new routing study, mailed notices to affected landowners, newspaper publications, public comment periods and evidentiary and public hearings before the eastern portion can proceed.
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