Wind Power News: Oklahoma
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma gets recommended approval of its plan to add wind power
Don’t call Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s plan to add 675 megawatts of additional wind power to its portfolio “Wind Catcher II.” A witness testifying Monday before an Oklahoma Corporation Commission administrative law judge and two of three elected commissioners who sat in on the hearing said there are several reasons why that description would be inaccurate. “I have kind of bristled at the comparison,” Matthew A. Horeled, PSO’s regulatory and finance vice president, testified on Monday in response to . . . Complete story »
Agreement sets stage for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma to add wind energy to its portfolio if regulators agree
TULSA – Regulators and other interested parties have agreed to Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s proposal to buy ownership into three under-construction wind farms in north-central Oklahoma, the utility announced Tuesday. Utility spokespeople said the agreement between the utility, the Public Utility Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and consumer groups propels it forward on its plan to add 675 megawatts of energy to its energy resources. “This settlement agreement puts PSO a step closer to . . . Complete story »
NextEra’s ‘largest-of-its-kind’ energy project still in talks with Vance AFB
The Skeleton Creek wind farm project, initially planned to be up and running by the end of 2019, has been pushed back by a year as talks over air space between NextEra Energy Resources and Vance Air Force Base continue. “There’s a number of factors … and certainly our interactions with the Air Force base are very important and a big part of that,” NextEra spokesman Bryan Garner said, adding that “other considerations” also contributed to the revised timetable. The . . . Complete story »
‘Largest of its kind’ energy project coming to Northwest Oklahoma
ENID, Okla. – The “largest combined wind, solar and energy storage project in the U.S.” is slated for construction in Northwest Oklahoma, with a collective footprint to include Garfield, Alfalfa and Major counties, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative announced Tuesday. The Skeleton Creek project will consist of a wind farm, a solar farm and an energy storage facility, all of which will be adding power to the Southwest Power Pool electric grid region. Oklahoma and 13 other states are part of the . . . Complete story »
Developer announces significant second phase for Frontier Wind in Kay County
The owner of a Kay County wind farm announced Wednesday it is about to more than double the operation’s size. Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy, stated it plans to build the 350-megawatt Frontier Windpower II project by the end of 2020. That one project, company officials said, will be the largest capacity project it has operating in its 3,000-megawatt advanced-energy fleet of wind and solar nationwide. Together with its already operating Frontier Windpower project, the . . . Complete story »
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma joins sister utility to propose significant wind development across north-central Oklahoma
TULSA – Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and its sister company, Southwestern Electric Power Co., are once again asking regulators to allow them to recover costs for projects that would add more wind power to their generating fleets. If regulators agree, the companies would build, own and operate three wind-powered facilities that would be located across seven counties in north-central Oklahoma and would add 1,485 megawatts of electricity to the regional grid. PSO would own 45.5% of that, allowing it to . . . Complete story »
GE probes third turbine collapse at US wind farms this year
A GE turbine has collapsed at a wind farm in Nebraska, marking the third such incident involving its turbines in the US this year – although Recharge understands investigations of the two earlier failures suggests no common factor behind the spate of dramatic topplings. The latest turbine came down on 5 July at Invenergy’s 200MW Upstream Wind Energy Center, which only began operations at the beginning of 2019. Nobody was injured by the collapse of the GE 2.5-116 turbine at . . . Complete story »
New rule requiring wind facility owners to pay development, annual operational fees takes effect Aug. 1.
A new rule takes effect Aug. 1 that will provide the Oklahoma Corporation Commission with additional dollars to help regulate the development of wind energy resources in the state. The rule requires owners of wind energy facilities to pay the agency $2,000 annually per facility to help compensate for its oversight responsibilities. With 58 operational wind farms that are not owned by a state-regulated utility, the fee initially is expected to generate $116,000 annually. The rule also requires developers of . . . Complete story »
Corporation Commission seeks to hear from wind businesses before updating rules
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is embarking on a process that likely will tweak its wind development rules as it seeks to implement a new law that harnesses the state’s wind power to support the military. The law, approved by Oklahoma’s Legislature and Gov. Kevin Stitt, clarifies processes wind farm developers in Oklahoma must follow to ensure needed federal approvals to protect low-level military training areas are obtained before construction on those projects can begin. Those needed federal approvals must be . . . Complete story »
US wind turbine collapses ‘not linked’, says GE
GE Renewable Energy said it is treating the collapse of two of its machines within months as “separate and isolated incidents”, as latest research on the issue seen by Recharge says the wind industry needs a better understanding of the complex interaction of factors that can bring turbines down. A GE 2.4-107 turbine crumpled to the ground at the Chisholm View 2 wind farm in Oklahoma last week, prompting the launch of an investigation at the project, which entered service . . . Complete story »
