More than twenty legislators and guests descended upon central Kansas Wednesday, October 14, to attend a briefing and tour of the Smoky Hills Wind Farm in Ellsworth and Lincoln County, Kansas. Hosted by site owners Enel Green Power, it was a great afternoon. After a meal catered by historic Brookville Chicken in the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) building, lawmakers broke into groups to look at various pieces of machinery and equipment used in the turbines as well as the harness equipment employed during maintenance. A group photo was taken alongside a blade in the laydown yard.
Lawmakers then returned for a briefing on how a #windfarm produces power, the technical systems involved in operation and maintenance, how power flows, the role of Southwest Power Pool (#SPP), and about the transmission grid delivering power to consumers.
After nearly an hour of productive question and answer spanning the spectrum of questions, lawmakers toured the project site. A turbine was shut down so lawmakers could view inside the turbine, ask questions and take photos alongside an old wind mill. It was a great shot to juxtapose the old and new wind technologies. As lawmakers got back on the bus, the turbine was turned on again and began to spin beautifully harnessing the wind and delivering cheap power!
A great tour that underscores the positive benefits that our twenty-one wind farm project fleet brings to Kansas (with eight more coming online soon)!
Thank you to Enel Green Power for taking staff off their duties to host the tour. It was very informative and fun!
