By Tom Kleckner
American Electric Power on Wednesday announced that Louisiana’s Public Service Commission has approved its proposed mammoth Wind Catcher Energy Connection project.
AEP’s Louisiana operating company, Southwestern Electric Power Co., would own 70% of the $4.5 billion project, a 360-mile, 765-kV line to Tulsa from a 2-GW wind farm being built by Invenergy in the Oklahoma Panhandle. AEP affiliate Public Service Company of Oklahoma would own the other 30%. The two utilities would purchase the wind facility upon its completion, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020.
SWEPCO agreed to a cap on construction costs, qualification for 100% of federal production tax credits and minimum annual production goals, among other commitments.
“Wind Catcher is a major investment in clean energy that will produce long-term savings for Louisiana customers and further diversify our energy resource mix,” AEP CEO Nick Akins said in a press release. “The Louisiana Public Service Commission’s decision recognizes the benefits Wind Catcher will bring to Louisiana customers.”
AEP says it expects to save its customers more than $4 billion over the 25-year life of the wind farm, primarily through a reduction in the fuel portion of their bills that begins in 2021.
The PSC joined Arkansas regulators in approving the project. The Oklahoma and Texas commissions have yet to weigh in, but AEP appears to face longer odds before those two agencies.
The head of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Public Utility Division and the state’s attorney general have indicated in regulatory filings that they remain opposed to the project, and landowner opposition to the transmission line has been running high. The OCC has scheduled a public comment hearing for July 2.
Texas’ Public Utility Commission staff has disagreed with an administrative law judge’s preliminary decisions approving Wind Catcher, saying “the evidence presented does not support a sufficient probability of improvement of service or lowering of costs to ratepayers.”
Staff recommend that the commission condition its approval on a requirement that SWEPCO guarantee tax credits in the amounts represented by the utility, and that it guarantee some level of net benefits to customers over and above the annual revenues that customers are obligated to pay for the project’s base rate costs. The PUC will take up the issue at its July 12 open meeting (Docket No. 47461).
