A transmission line that will allow Kansas City Power & Light Co. to buy power from two planned Missouri wind facilities was energized Dec. 15.

The 180-mile, 345-kV Midwest Transmission Project was developed by Transource Energy LLC and the Omaha Public Power District, with OPPD building and owning the roughly 45-mile segment of the line from Nebraska City, Neb., to the state border with Missouri, and Transource, a competitive transmission joint venture of American Electric Power Co. Inc. and Great Plains Energy Inc., building and owning about 135 miles from a new substation, Mullin Creek, near Maryville, Mo., to KCP&L's Sibley substation near Sibley, Mo.

KCP&L is a regulated electric utility subsidiary of Great Plains.

The project, also known as the Sibley-Nebraska City Transmission Project, originally had a targeted completion date of June 1, 2017, but the developers said more than a year ago that it would be finished by the end of 2016. Its estimated cost was $400 million.

"This project was a Priority Project in the Southwest Power Pool Inc. region and will reduce grid congestion, increase system reliability, provide additional grid capability for future needs and enable large-scale renewable energy development in the region," Transource Energy President Antonio Smyth said in a news release.