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Kansas City Firm Picked to Build Plant

Posted on: Saturday, 10 December 2005, 00:00 CST

By Steve Everly, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Dec. 9--Burns & McDonnell has been picked to design and help manage the construction of Kansas City Power & Light's planned coal-fired power plant near Weston.

The Kansas City engineering firm will have 90 employees working full-time on the Iatan 2 plant, and others will have roles as well. The company said over the next four years it plans to hire 150 employees to help in the design of new power plants and air pollution control for electric utilities nationwide. Some of those new employees will assist on the Iatan 2 project. The firm currently has 2,000 employees, 1,500 of them in Kansas City.

"Being a Kansas City-based company we're especially pleased to work with KCP&L because of the long-term benefits this new power plant will bring to the community where we live and work," said Greg Graves, chief executive officer of Burns & McDonnell in an announcement.

Iatan 2, which will cost more than $1 billion, will have about 1,000 workers involved in the construction. Once completed, 50 to 100 employees will operate it.

The 850-megawatt power plant northwest of Weston has been approved by state utility regulators in Kansas and Missouri on the financing and need for the plant. Some environmental approvals are pending.

Burns & McDonnell will begin work immediately to design and engineer key features of the plant and begin procurement of the boiler, steam turbine and pollution control equipment in spring 2006. Plant construction is planned for later in the year with the plant scheduled to be in operation in 2010.

Officials with KCP&L and Great Plains Energy Inc., the utility's parent, said Burns & McDonnell was picked because of its track record in completing projects on time and on budget and for its credentials in working on coal-fired power plants.

The proposed power plant has been criticized by environmental groups for its potential to emit too much pollution. But utility officials countered that the plant will have state-of-the art pollution equipment. Iatan 1, an existing coal-fired plant adjacent to the proposed Iatan 2 plant, will also be retrofitted with environmental improvements. Both plants will emit less pollution than Iatan 1 currently does by itself, according to the utility.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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KLT,

Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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