The Iola City Council and Chanute City Commission each agreed Monday night to proceed with purchase of three 2 megawatt diesel generator units through High Plains Power Systems of Rossville to add their reserve requirements and handle future growth. The cost for both cities will be around $2 million each.
The Iola units will be placed in a building to be constructed next to the electric substation north of Russell Stover. Electric Superintendent Mike PhilIips told the Iola Council the purchase will enable the city to meet increased capacity requirements, including that from a data center north of Iola.
Chanute will place their three units at Power Plant 2, and will also enable them to meet Southwest Power Pool requirements that were put in place in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri in 2021.
Both cities will also be able to generate capacity credits which in the case of Iola will be combined with on-hand funds to fund the project. Chanute, which has been working on a project like this for the past couple of years, will be making their purchase through a five year lease-purchase agreement.
At both meetings information was provided that it would be very difficult to construct natural gas generating capacity, largely because of the time requirements. To get the required permitting for a gas plant from both SPP and the Environmental Protection Agency takes between four and five years.
