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Gardner City moves forward with Substation 4 plan, signs memorandum with Evergy
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Summary
Planning commission approved a conditional use permit recommendation for Substation 4; city purchased 10.8 acres and signed a memorandum of agreement with Evergy to construct adjoining transmission facilities. Equipment procurement is under way with an operational deadline in November 2027.
Gardner City staff told the Utilities Advisory Commission on April 3 that the Planning Commission approved a recommendation for a conditional use permit for a new 161 kV Substation 4 and the matter will proceed to the City Council.
The city purchased a 10.8-acre site for Substation 4 and on June 3, 2024 signed a memorandum of agreement with Evergy that includes sale of 214,417 square feet to Evergy for a future distribution facility adjacent to the city substation, staff said. "The goal was to provide safe, reliable electricity to residential, commercial, [and] industrial development southeast of the city by adding a 161 kV substation with two 161 kV transmission feeds from the grid," a staff member said.
Why it matters: the new substation is intended to serve growing demand in the city's southeast quadrant and to support planned projects that will increase local power needs. City staff said Substation 1 can temporarily carry load if Substation 4 is delayed, but the city prefers the additional capacity for long-term reliability.
City staff summarized the project timeline and procurement status: transformers, a 161 kV circuit breaker and the control-room enclosure have been ordered as part of a strategy to acquire major equipment before construction starts to avoid lead-time delays. Staff said transformer lead times prompted procurement beginning in 2023. The project faces a city-set deadline of November 2027 for being operational.
Evergy plans a larger adjacent facility with three transformers to serve regional transmission needs; the city substation will include two transformers and serve primarily local distribution. The revised site layout places the Gardner substation on the west side of the parcel and Evergy's facility on the east.
Staff described alternatives considered during site selection: Site A (the selected site) scored highest on multiple criteria; Site B lacked nearby transmission lines and would have required constructing additional transmission, and Site C had no access roads or distribution lines and would have required a half-mile access road plus feeder extensions.
The project is linked to other capital needs the city described at the meeting. Staff said Substation 4 will support, among other things, the Kill Creek wastewater treatment plant expansion and other developments southeast of Clare Road. Staff also discussed interconnection planning for a separate project on 180th Street, noting that an agreement with Johnson County Rural Water District No. 7 ("Water 7") remains unresolved because of prior service-boundary language and annexations.
No formal council action on Substation 4 occurred at the Utilities Advisory Commission meeting; staff said the next formal step is a City Council review following the Planning Commission recommendation. Commission members asked when the substation would be operational; staff replied that equipment is being procured now and the schedule aims for readiness before the city deadline.
The commission received the update during its regular discussion-item reports; no motion approving Substation 4 was made at this meeting.
