OGandE plans new wind farm in Oklahoma with 86 wind turbines

"The Crossroads project represents the achievement of a very lofty goal," said Howard Motley, OG&E’s vice president of regulatory affairs. "It also provides another opportunity to add significant renewable generation at the lowest reasonable cost to OG&E customers.

"By the time the new wind farm is in its third year of operation, it will provide a net savings to all of our residential, municipal and business customers. We project schools will benefit even sooner."

Motley said the wind farm is expected to increase the average residential customer’s bill by about 65 cents a month, beginning in 2012. That figure will drop to 9 cents a month in 2013.

OG&E projects the lower cost energy produced by the wind farm should provide a 40-cent decrease in monthly bills in 2014 and reduce customers’ bills every year thereafter.

The wind farm will be in Dewey County, about seven miles north of Taloga. It will have 86 wind turbines rated at 2.3 megawatts each and will connect with OG&E’s new Windspeed transmission line, which was energized March 31.

Construction will begin once the project is approved. It will take about 12 months to complete. OG&E set a goal of quadrupling its wind power production in 2008.

At that time, the company had about 170 megawatts of wind energy on its system. Now the electric utility has about 270 megawatts of wind power capacity, with electricity coming from two OG&E-owned wind farms and one leased power project.

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By Jay Marks, The Oklahoman, www.newsok.com