The State Building Advisory Commission agreed to forward 13 Build Kansas Fund applications tied to the 40101(d) “preventing outages and enhancing the resilience of the electric grid” program to the U.S. Department of Energy for federal review.

The applications were presented as part of a larger round: Jason, a staff member presenting the packet, said the program received a record number of applications and that “we have a record number of 22 Build Kansas Fund applications to review today,” with 13 brought forward by the Kansas Corporation Commission for the committee’s consideration. Lynn Ritz, director of government relations for the Kansas Corporation Commission, said this is the commission’s second round of 40101(d) applications and that DOE approved the first round of 11 last year but that a temporary pause for federal funds earlier slowed some projects. Ritz also said DOE has indicated it will “expedite” reviews for this round.

Why it matters: presenters said the projects address long-running reliability risks in rural areas—especially wood power poles that are often 50–60 years old and failing—and are intended to reduce outage durations for hospitals, emergency services and other critical infrastructure. Jason said the 13 applications in this batch total about $3,496,000 in Build Kansas requests and represent roughly 10% of the $34,700,000 committed so far. Lynn Ritz said the round would use roughly $6.5 million in federal funds and about $9.7 million in total project costs when matches are included.

Key details and examples: committee members heard brief summaries of each application during the meeting. Examples included: Cocker City asking for $37,935.43 to replace poles and associated components after up to six annual outages linked to failing poles; Sumner-City Electric Cooperative requesting $260,997.56 to replace 67 poles and upgrade assemblies (more than 70% of that co-op’s annual maintenance budget, the application said); Wheatland Electric Cooperative requesting $417,556.24 to underground lines and upgrade conductors on several feeders; and Donhattan (Donovan) Electric Cooperative requesting $541,713.48 to rebuild the Blair substation, originally built in 1977.

Small towns and waivers: the committee discussed two very small towns seeking exceptions to the local non-federal match. Jason said Luray (population cited in the application as 166) requested relief from a recommended local 5% contribution; the application showed the 5% local match would have been $12,903 and stated that the per-customer monetary impact of full local funding would be about $5,425 (which the application summarized as an approximately $45 monthly impact per customer over 10 years). The city of Savinburg (population cited as 74) similarly requested an exemption; Jason read that the 5% match for Savinburg would have been $11,380. The commission chair said he had “no problem granting the exemption for these 2 communities,” and the applications were forwarded for federal review; Senator Petty asked that the minutes document the reason for such exemptions for audit purposes.

Discussion and constraints: presenters repeatedly noted program constraints: limited federal funding relative to statewide need, match requirements (the federal program requires a nonfederal match level presented in the applications), and DOE reporting milestones such as planning complete, design complete, NEPA/regulatory approvals if required, equipment purchase, construction start and completion, and closeout. Lynn Ritz and staff said some prior awards experienced delays because of the earlier federal freeze, but DOE told the state it would expedite reviews this time.

Next steps: the commission forwarded the 13 40101(d) Build Kansas applications to DOE for federal review. The commission did not record individual roll-call votes on each application in the transcript; staff said these applications will be packaged and reported to DOE under the program’s milestone reporting requirements.