WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The Biden administration approved a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for a controversial project to dissect Kansas with an electric transmission corridor.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it would give a conditional loan to Grain Belt Express LLC as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America plan. Invenergy Transmission owns Grain Belt Express.
If finalized, the 2,500-megawatt interregional transmission line would run approximately 578 miles from Ford County, Kansas, to Callaway County, Missouri.
The project will connect three regional grids: the Southwest Power Pool, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, and Associated Electric Cooperative Incorporated.
The DOE highlights several reasons to move forward with the project, such as improving grid reliability and resilience, alleviating congestion and reducing consumer costs, meeting future generation and demand growth and increasing clean energy integration.
The loan comes in the form of a conditional commitment. The DOE describes a conditional commitment as “a loan or a loan guarantee to a project on the terms and subject to conditions set forth in a term sheet negotiated between DOE and the applicant.”