Topeka ? The state’s top electric utility regulator Thursday gave a stern warning to two companies competing to build a high-dollar, high-voltage transmission line: Reach a compromise, or else.

Kansas Corporation Commission Chairman Thomas Wright read aloud a warning to Prairie Wind Transmission, which is a partnership including Westar Energy, and ITC Great Plains. The companies are vying to build a $400 million to $600 million transmission line in southern Kansas.

“The Kansas Corporation Commission strongly urges both companies to work together to reach an agreement to construct this transmission project,” Wright said.

He said if the companies fail to offer a solution, the KCC will decide the issue. “We may end up with a clear winner and clear loser in the case,” he said.

That could lead to major construction delays because the losing side would challenge the decision in court, he said. Wright then took no questions from the media and left.

State leaders have said the project is needed to transmit electricity from wind farms to eastern Kansas and other states. Some Kansas officials have complained the process to build the line has taken too long.

The proposal is to build a 765-kilovolt line to connect substations at Spearville and Wichita and interconnect with a line north out of Oklahoma, the KCC said.

ITC, a Topeka-based subsidiary of a Michigan transmission company, has proposed a 180-mile, V-shaped route, while Prairie Wind’s proposal is a Y-shaped route that is about 230 miles long.

In his statement, Wright did not set a deadline for the companies to come to terms, but an order issued by the KCC outlines a process to consider the competing plans.

“Our hope is that the companies will come to a mutually beneficial agreement, but we will be prepared to decide the matter if they don’t,” he said.

Karla Olsen, a spokeswoman for Westar, said the company was reviewing the order and planned further discussions with ITC.

Kimberly Gencur Svaty, a spokeswoman for ITC, said the company agreed that a compromise was needed, and added, “ITC strongly believes that any such resolution needs to respect the rights of all affected utilities in Kansas.”