The Kansas City, Missouri and Topeka based utility, Evergy, is preparing to break ground on the 440-megawatt Mullin Creek Natural Gas Plant five miles south of Maryville later this year. It joins two 705-megawatt Kansas gas plants, and two solar projects which the utility hopes to have online by 2030.
Together, the projects will add roughly 2000 megawatts of energy to the grid and are estimated to cost more than $2.75 billion to complete. Evergy started planning the projects in 2023 and received regulatory approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission in July 2025.
On Jan. 21, as it prepares to begin construction, representatives from the utility, in partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation, met with members of the public and local elected officials in Maryville to discuss construction impacts and roadway changes resulting from the project. The meeting drew significant interest, with county commissioners, local leaders and residents turning out to view construction plans and anticipated project timelines.
Evergy Senior Communications Manager, Courtney Lewis, emphasized that the plant will allow the utility to “better serve the people of Nodaway County.”
It will “ensure that their power is more reliable, and [Evergy] will be able to meet the increased demands of this area,” she said.
The plant, however, will generate enough electricity to power over 500,000 homes a month, sending its impact far beyond the region. (There are roughly 8,000 households in Nodaway County).
Representatives at the meeting said Evergy’s current push to complete five power generating facilities in the coming years marks an investment not seen in over four decades.
Demand for electricity “is really at a generational point,” Lewis said, “where 50 years ago we might’ve seen this when central air conditioning became available in homes and office buildings. That was one of those other inflection points in the industry. And we are kind of there again.”
The surge in demand is not unique to Evergy's service area. Missouri officials have begun discussions around developing nuclear power in the state, and, nationwide, the rise of artificial intelligence is expected to send demand for electricity spiking in the coming years.
However, Lewis said, “the tech industry is just one factor. Overall people are using energy differently than they did years ago. Everything is being plugged in and charging. What we have in our homes is very different.”
Evergy’s current projects have been aided by changes to utility regulations in both Kansas and Missouri.
The Nodaway County plant will be located at the intersection of 340th Street and U.S. Highway 71 next to the existing Mullin Creek Substation. The first phase of construction is expected to begin as early as June when MoDOT will add J-Turns to the existing corridor to improve traffic safety in the area during the construction of the plant itself. The project will require over 200 construction workers and employ 5-10 full-time employees once operational.
According to a Senior Communications Manager at Evergy, Shane Batchelder, natural gas was selected for its “reliability.”
The plant will use simple-cycle turbines; such plants “are sometimes referred to as ‘peaker plants.’ You can ramp them up and get them to full power very quickly, and you can also ramp them down very quickly,” Batchelder said.
Multiple abutting property owners contacted for this story declined to discuss the project on record.
