By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

An electric transmission line is being built to connect a new substation under construction two miles northwest of Tampa to the Union Ridge substation along K-4 highway near Hope.

Steel poles, 90 feet tall, have been installed from the new substation on Jade Rd. to 360th Rd., then east to Pawnee Rd. and north to Dickinson County.

Helicopters are being used to lay lines on pulleys connected to the poles.

The new substation will collect electricity from the 95 Diamond Vista wind towers being installed in a 3x15-mile area and transmit it to the Union Ridge substation for distribution to a major transmission line.

Union Ridge is owned by Westar. A new terminal recently was added to the substation to accommodate the new wind farm.

Damien Hebert, operations manager for Flint Hills Rural Electric Cooperative, which serves rural Marion County, said the utility company is providing power to a staging area until the end of the project.

Flint Hills workers are moving local power lines underground to accommodate passage of a 300-foot-tall crane that will be used to install wind towers.

Westar and DS&O Rural Electric Cooperative of Solomon are providing similar services in their areas, Hebert said.

Hebert noted that electricity produced by Diamond Vista Wind Farm will not be used locally but will be sent to other parts of the country.

“But it benefits all of us as part of the electric grid,” he said.

Tower parts and rotor blades currently are being delivered to an area at the west end of the project near Alamo and 350th Rds.