SWEPCO Gets Approval for $2.2B in Solar and Wind Power

Southwestern Electric Power Co. of Shreveport has received regulatory approval to proceed with a “fuel-free power plan” and buy nearly a gigawatt of wind and solar generation to be built by Invenergy LLC of Chicago.

SWEPCO, which serves about 125,000 electricity customers in western Arkansas, will pay $2.2 billion under a settlement agreement approved Friday by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The Arkansas Public Service Commission approved the purchases on June 1.

Terms for the 999 megawatts of renewable generation resources were reached in March, and will help meet projected demand while protecting customers from price volatility, SWEPCO said in a news release.

“The additional generating capacity is necessary to meet the energy needs of SWEPCO customers,” the release said. “That need has increased due to new rules from the Southwest Power Pool that require utilities to have available additional generation capacity to support reliability. SPP is the 14-state grid-balancing authority that includes Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.”

Brett Mattison, SWEPCO’s president and COO, said the wind and solar purchase from Invenergy was the “lowest cost, best value” option for the utility, a subsidiary of American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio. “We appreciate our regulatory commissioners allowing us to bring more low-cost, renewable energy … .”

One solar field and two wind projects will be built by Invenergy and acquired by SWEPCO, the company said. The projects are Mooringsport, a 200-megawatt solar plant in Caddo Parish, Louisiana; Diversion, a 200-megawatt wind facility in Baylor County, Texas; and Wagon Wheel, a nearly 600-megawatt wind farm in four counties in Oklahoma.

The company said aging generation units drove the need for the solar and wind developments. Plans to retire a number of older generation units left SWEPCO facing a capacity deficit beginning this year and growing to 1,574 megawatts in 2028. AEP has long relied on older fossil-fuel driven power plants.

The release said three wind farms in north-central Oklahoma already deliver renewable energy to SWEPCO’s customers in Louisiana and Arkansas.

SWEPCO serves more than 551,000 customers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. AEP maintains the nation’s largest electricity transmission system with more than 225,000 miles of power lines serving 5.6 million customers in 11 states.