Savings are blowing in the wind

Arkansas customers to benefit from SWEPCO’s investment

Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s current investment in clean energy resources will likely mean savings for its Texarkana, Arkansas, customers, but not its Texarkana, Texas, customers, an official said Monday.

“Our intent would be to have a positive impact with the wind facilities in Oklahoma and provide a savings for customers,” said Peter Main, American Electric Power’s corporate communications manager. “The way it was is we acquire a facility and our rates pay for the facilities but wind and solar are free.”

SWEPCO is a subsidiary of AEP.

The estimated amount of savings is not immediately known, but SWEPCO is looking for the most economical and reliable resources to serve its customers, Main said.

The savings are also expected to benefit SWEPCO’s wholesale customers in Bentonville, Hope and Prescott, Main said.

SWEPCO has one wind farm completed in north central Oklahoma and two additional wind farms under construction with completion dates of late this year or early this year. Together, the Sundance, Maverick and Traverse wind farms in Oklahoma are called North Central Wind.

Last year, the Arkansas Public Service Commission, the regulating body in Arkansas approved the wind farm projects in Oklahoma to provide energy. However, The Public Utilities Commission of Texas did not approve SWEPCO’s Oklahoma-based wind farms, which means power generated from the Oklahoma wind farms will not be used in Texas.

The Louisiana and

Oklahoma utility commissions have also approved SWEPCO’s plans to purchase these wind farms when construction is complete.

The wind farms will tap into some of the country’s best wind resources. These facilities are directly connected to the transmission grid that serves SWEPCO customers, according to the its website.

SWEPCO will own 810 megawatts of the generating capacity. Its sister utility, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, will own 675 megawatts.

On Monday, SWEPCO announced another round of requests for proposals for more wind farms and its foray into seeking a solar farm to expand its clean energy offerings.

“We are working to get more clean energy into our resource mix,” Main said, adding the requests for proposals ensures a competitive bidding process.

Requests for proposals are due by Aug. 12 with a timeline of March 2022 for approval consideration at each states’ regulatory agency.

Wind resources must be a minimum of 100 MW, interconnect to the Southwest Power Pool and be located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas or Missouri. Solar resources must be a minimum of 50 MW, interconnect to SWEPCO’s transmission system within SPP and be located in the SWEPCO service territory.