August 17, 2017
Oklahoma

AEP’s giant wind farm facing opposition in Oklahoma

Tom Knox, Reporter | Columbus Business First | Aug 16, 2017 | www.bizjournals.com

American Electric Power Company Inc.’s planned mega wind farm in Oklahoma isn’t blowing away the state’s top legal official.

Oklahoma’s attorney general wants the state’s utility regulators to dismiss a case from the Oklahoma subsidiary of the Columbus power company that seeks permission to build the country’s biggest single-site wind farm, according to the Oklahoman.

AEP and its Oklahoma subsidiary, Public Service Co., hasn’t proven a need for new power generation and didn’t follow competitive bidding rules, the attorney general said in a motion filed last week.

AEP announced plans for the $4.5 billion, 2,000-megawatt wind farm last month, describing it as another example of its changing generation mix that is increasingly including renewable energy instead of fossil fuels like coal.

The Oklahoma attorney general said the case and another rate case would raise customer prices too much, according to the Oklahoman, and that regulators should wait to review the wind farm until it is in service, which should be in 2020.

AEP (NYSE:AEP) also needs buy-in for the wind farm from regulators in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. It plans to buy the 800-turbine project from Chicago-based Invenergy and construct a power line to deliver the electricity to customers in the four Southwestern U.S. states.

AEP CEO Nick Akins says the utility needs to get approval for the project by early 2018.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/08/17/aeps-giant-wind-farm-facing-opposition-in-oklahoma/