By ALLISON KITE
Kansas Reflector
The largest electric utility in Kansas and western Missouri will add two natural gas plants by the end of 2030, the company announced Monday.
Evergy, which serves 1.6 million customers in the two states, plans to build combined-cycle natural gas plants — each with a 705-megawatt capacity — in two Kansas counties in 2029 and 2030, respectively.
David Campbell, Evergy’s CEO and chairman, said at a news conference in Hutchinson, Kansas, that the plants would “help maintain a diverse energy mix for our state,” ensuring “reliable, affordable, sustainable energy.”
“They’re flexible resources that can ramp production up and ramp production down based on the needs of the grid,” Campbell said, “so they pair very well with Kansas’ abundant renewable generation resources.”
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, lauded the announcement at the Hutchinson news conference, saying the construction of the plants would create 500 construction jobs and 165 permanent jobs. She said the plants would ensure reliable energy, including in emergencies or periods of high demand, like hot summer days.
“As Kansas continues to transition to more sustainable energy, we’re doing it responsibly,” Kelly said. “These plants are much cleaner than traditional coal plants.”
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, burning natural gas to create electricity produces less carbon dioxide than coal. But natural gas leaks release its primary component, methane, into the atmosphere, accounting for more than one-third of U.S. methane emissions. Methane is a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The announcement marks an increasing reliance on natural gas generation by Evergy.
In its long-range plan filed with regulators in 2022, Evergy planned to exclusively add wind and solar facilities over the coming decade. A year later, it scaled back those planned renewable energy facilities, forecasted plans to add natural gas plants and delayed the retirement of the Lawrence coal plant.
Evergy’s latest update, filed earlier this year, almost doubles the amount of natural gas generation the utility will add between now and the early 2030s. At the same time, it increased planned wind and solar additions compared to last year’s plan.
Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club, questioned whether Evergy would be able to achieve its goals to reduce emissions given its planned investments in natural gas generation.
“I don’t know how a utility can claim that it’s affordable, reliable or sustainable,” he said, noting that gas prices can be volatile and natural gas outages contributed to rolling blackouts the Midwest experienced in 2021.
Beyond that, he said, burning gas is harmful to the environment.
Video of the press event is below.