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ST. LOUIS — An 800-mile-long, multistate power line would save Missouri residents and companies billions of dollars in electricity costs, regulators said Thursday as they, at long last, approved the project.

The Grain Belt Express transmission line, which would stretch from Kansas to Indiana, was approved in a 4-to-1 vote by energy regulators with the Missouri Public Service Commission.

Missouri was the last state approval needed for the project.

“Right now, there are companies that are wanting this electricity,” said Commissioner Glen Kolkmeyer. “The economic impact that this line can do is huge.”

Invenergy, the line’s Chicago-based developer, is still awaiting approval from an ongoing federal review but aims to start construction on the project in early 2025.

Regulators and operators alike said the project would bring low-cost renewable energy from western Kansas to states along its route.

Public Service Commission Chairman Scott Rupp said there was “compelling evidence” that the project would lower energy costs in the state by about 6.1% from 2027 to 2066, resulting in more than $17.6 billion in savings for Missouri residents.

The Grain Belt would also make the electric grid more reliable and more resilient, commissioners said, by enhancing the ability to move power from region to region.

“The project will improve the interconnectivity to multiple regions, helping guard against price spikes and outages such as those experienced (during) Winter Storm Uri and Elliot,” said Rupp.

The Public Service Commission had already approved the line once, in 2019. Commissioners said then, too, that the project was firmly in the public interest of Missourians.

But Missouri lawmakers repeatedly attempted to block the line, which opponents called a violation of property rights. Many of the more than 500 landowners along the route, then, opposed the project, saying it was a land grab from a private company that would offer little public value.

The state House of Representatives even moved, unsuccessfully, to block the use of eminent domain for above-ground utility projects like the Grain Belt.

Last summer, though, the project was redesigned in a way that essentially sweetened the deal for Missouri by promising to deliver five times as much electricity to the state as originally proposed.

Invenergy was receptive to the widespread “desire to see more power delivered locally,” said Patrick Whitty, a senior vice president of transmission public affairs for the company.

“That’s something that we think is a really important part of the decision today,” he said.

Though lawmaker opposition to the project has faltered, Public Service Commission officials said they are sensitive to the fact that landowner concerns have persisted along its path.

And although commissioners said that the line’s expected benefits outweighed potential impacts to land, property values or landscape aesthetics, they also sought to ensure that its approval contained strong safeguards for affected landowners.

The project, for instance, will need to uphold a range of conditions — from advance notice to compensation — or face penalties such as fines that would go toward funding public schools.

Some state commissioners hailed those conditions as an effective compromise that had helped secure their support for the project.

Moreover, some said that Invenergy’s conduct toward landowners — once construction finally begins — will carry massive implications, extending into the future.

“This can be a situation in which Grain Belt garners good will amongst landowners,” said Commissioner Maida Coleman. “Or they can provide the groundwork for future opposition.

“The burden, I think, is on Grain Belt, as I know that landowners, legislators and the media will be watching closely, as will all of us.”