US utility Southwestern Electric Power (SWEPCO) has signed long-term power purchase agreements for 358.65MW of renewable electricity from wind projects in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
The agreements will increase the company's wind energy portfolio more than four times when included with an existing 49.2MW deal signed with the Oklahoma Power Authority.
The latest contracts includes three projects in Oklahoma being developed by Apex Wind with a generating capacity of 201.25MW, a 79.6MW facility in Texas owned by NextEra Energy and a plant in Kansas owned by BP Wind Energy and Sempra.
Venita McCellon-Allen, president and CEO of SWEPCO, said, 'Through the Louisiana Public Service Commission's recent renewable energy pilot programme and our ongoing efforts to expand our renewable energy portfolio, we were in a good position to pursue additional renewable resources at a good price for customers. I'm pleased that we could secure these agreements in a fairly short time frame to put more wind power to work for our customers.'
Nicholas Akins, president and CEO of Southwestern parent company American Electric Power, added, 'With these long-term power purchase agreements, we have added a substantial amount of wind energy to serve SWEPCO customers in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, and we have combined efforts with a Turk Plant partner to exceed the 400MW commitment in our Turk Plant settlement.'