Oklahoma Utility Wants to Quadruple Wind Power Production

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50532

The Oklahoma utility OGE Energy Corp. recently detailed plans to quadruple the wind power production of it's subsidiary OG&E Electric Services, bringing the company's wind capacity from 170 megawatts (MW) to around 770 MW.

OG&E President and CEO Pete Delaney said that implementation of the company's plans should give more OG&E customers the choice of being up to 100 percent "green power" users in a few years.

"The significant amount of wind in western Oklahoma is a largely untapped resource that is in increasing demand in Oklahoma and across the nation," said Delaney. "We have been working on plans for some time now to significantly increase OG&E's wind power production over the next four years."

Delaney said the investment in wind energy development could move Oklahoma from being sixth in the nation to as high as third in wind power production behind Texas and California. In addition to OG&E, there are many other developers interested in western Oklahoma wind projects.

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[RedEarth]

1. The reason.... OGE was turned down by the Corporation Commission

when they proposed building a huge coal plant in Eastern Ok. Environmentalist and many other groups actually had their voices heard by the Corporation Commission.

.......

Thwarted in its quest to build a coal-powered generation plant near Red Rock, OGE Energy, the parent company of Oklahoma Gas and Electric, announced a "green power” initiative Tuesday to quadruple its use of wind energy.

In a speech to the Downtown Rotary Club, Peter Delaney, OGE Energy chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the state's largest electric utility plans to increase its wind power capacity to 770 megawatts.

OG&E has about 170 megawatts of wind power capacity today, Delaney said.

In addition, the increased wind generating capacity will allow the electric utility to offer more customers the choice of using 100 percent "green power,” he said.

The $2 billion project would include construction of large wind farms in northwest Oklahoma and construction of transmission lines to carry the electricity to Oklahoma City and other areas of demand.

...........

OG&E and project partners Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority were rejected in their bid to build the 950-megawatt coal-fired plant in early October.

Commissioners turned down their application to recover construction costs before the plant became operational. Anthony called the wind power announcement an "enormous” initiative for OG&E.



http://newsok.com/article/3160464/1193845499