A recent ruling by Southwest Power Pool, Inc., could mean new opportunities for northwest Oklahoma’s wind energy industry.
The board of directors of Southwest Power Pool approved construction of a group of priority high voltage electric transmission projects estimated to bring at least $3.7 billion to the SPP region in the next 40 years. Among that construction is a high-voltage line from Comanche County, Kan., to Woodward and another from Woodward to Hitchland, Texas, south of Guymon. The lines will be double-circuit 345,000 volts. Cost of the line from Kansas to Woodward is projected at $108 million and from Woodward to Texas is $247 million.
The lines have been approved by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Curt Roggow, consultant to Enid Regional Development Alliance, said the news is good for Enid because it will open up the possibility for manufacturing in the Enid area.
“Wind energy will be the biggest benefactor because of the (voltage lines) being built in Oklahoma. Because of the position of those, we will have more wind energy on those lines pushing electricity throughout the Southwest Power Pool,” Roggow said.
Traditionally the SPP has built infrastructure in a “reactive” way, building just enough least-cost transmission lines to keep the lights on, said SPP President and CEO Nick Brown. However, members now are shifting to a new vision of enabling transmission and plan to proactively build a transmission superhighway that will benefit customers across the entire region.
Roggow said the new voltage lines also will relieve pressure on Southwest Power Pool’s other lines. In turn, this will provide opportunities for wind development in northwest and western Oklahoma as well as north central Oklahoma.
“It will certainly increase the opportunity for development all over,” he said.
The greatest opportunity will be the expansion of wind farms around Guymon. Roggow said he thinks Enid is a natural location for wind turbine manufacturing because it is the largest metropolitan area in northwest Oklahoma.
“Those blades must be manufactured and certain assembly must be done before those turbines can be sent to the field,” he said. “The opportunities for construction and manufacturing are going to be a big lay for us.”
Local alliance members have been waiting four years for the news and consider the projects a priority. The new voltage lines will relieve pressure on lines that pass through Enid as well as a large line from Kansas, which goes past Hunter and Breckinridge and across U.S. 412.
“That will create opportunity for new wind development,” Roggow said.
Southwest Power Pool, Inc., is a group of 57 members in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas that serve more than 5 million customers. Membership is comprised of investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, wholesale generators, power marketers and independent transmission companies.