Build Kansas panel forwards grid-resiliency and airport grant applications to DOE; approves budget request and minutes

The Build Kansas Hub steering committee reviewed applications for state matching grant support for electrical grid upgrades and airport infrastructure and agreed to forward the proposals to federal reviewers for consideration.

The committee considered a package of 40101d grants — the federal "preventing outages and enhancing the resilience of the electric grid" program — and a set of airport infrastructure requests from the Build Kansas Matching Grant Fund. Staff said the items cover rural utilities and small municipal airports across Kansas and asked the committee to advise forwarding the applications to the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration as appropriate.

The review matters because many Kansas communities rely on aging grid components and small airports for critical services. Committee presenters said several distribution and transmission lines, poles and substations are decades old and that the grants target reliability improvements to reduce outages that affect hospitals, emergency services and businesses.

Lynn Ritz, director of government relations for the Kansas Corporation Commission, said the 40101d round followed a larger set of submissions and that DOE has approved past packages. "This is our second round with the 40101d. We were before you last year with several — all 11 of those have now been approved by DOE," Ritz said. She told the committee federal review had been paused briefly by a freeze on federal funds but had resumed and that DOE indicated it would expedite reviews this round.

Staff said the overall pool for the current 40101d round included roughly $6.5 million in federal funds, with matching requirements that bring total project costs to about $9.7 million for the projects under consideration. Jason (staff presenter) told members that the 40101d package being forwarded from the commission to DOE totaled about $3.496 million in Build Kansas requests and represents roughly 10% of the Build Kansas funds committed so far.

Committee members asked for detail on several applications. Examples presented to the committee included: - City of Cocker City (2025-101): request $37,935.43 to replace aging poles and associated components after an audit showing repeated outages. - Sumner Electric Cooperative (2025-102): request $260,997.56 to replace 67 poles and assemblies and install new hardware; staff said 60 of the 67 poles failed an audit. - Wheatland Electric Cooperative (2025-103): request $417,556.24 for undergrounding and conductor upgrades on critical feeder sections. - Doniphan Electric Cooperative (2025-110): request $541,713.48 to rebuild an aging substation built in 1977. - City of Luray (2025-112) and City of Savinburg (2025-114): small municipalities sought waivers of the suggested 5% local cash match because of very small populations (Luray cited population ~66; Savinburg ~74); staff recommended exemptions and members discussed documenting the rationale for audit clarity.

On airports, staff described a set of smaller Build Kansas requests that would complement each airport's FAA allocation. Jason said the hub's technical-assistance staff had encouraged airports to apply before the fiscal-year deadline. The airport package totaled about $253,734 in Build Kansas requests and included projects such as Wellington (taxiway LED lighting, $12,838), Kingman (taxiway extension, $9,262.50) and Hays (reconstruction and turnarounds, $53,864).

The committee also reviewed a proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2026 for the Build Kansas program. Jason said staff "right-sized" the operating budget after the first year of operations, trimming travel and shifting some IT costs to professional services. The fiscal-year 2026 operating request presented to the committee was $4,000,000; presenters confirmed any unspent operating allocation is returned to the Build Kansas Fund and is available for project applicants.

Senator Petty asked staff to provide a tally of how many Kansans would be affected by the approved projects, a figure staff said they would compile. Representative Vaughn asked about local rate increases referenced in some applications and staff said several utilities had planned phased rate changes but that those increases would not fully cover needed infrastructure work.

The committee approved two formal items by recorded motion. Representative Hoffman moved, and Representative Vaughn seconded, adoption of the minutes from the March 18 and April 16, 2025 meetings; the committee voted aye and the minutes were approved.

Next steps: the applications the committee agreed to forward will be packaged for federal review by DOE (for 40101d grid projects) or FAA (for airport projects). Presenters said DOE has signaled an expedited review for the 40101d package, but timelines remain subject to federal action and required milestones such as NEPA/environmental approvals, design completion and construction benchmarks.

The committee concluded its agenda after agreeing to forward the Build Kansas applications and to carry the operating budget request forward for administrative processing.