GAHANNA, Ohio, November 23, 2010 – AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP), has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for wind energy with Paulding Wind Farm II LLC, a subsidiary of Horizon Wind Energy, a Houston-based company with over 20 wind farms across the United States.
Through a 20-year agreement, AEP Ohio will purchase all of the output from the 99-megawatt (MW) facility that will be located in Benton Township, Paulding County, Ohio. Review of the agreement will be included in AEP Ohio’s upcoming ESP filing and it is subject to approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The project will consist of 55 V100-1.8 MW turbines to be manufactured by Vestas. The facility is expected to be in commercial operation by mid-summer 2011. Terms of both agreements were not disclosed.
“Incorporating renewable energy resources such as wind into our generation fleet fits with the vision of AEP Ohio and that of the state," said Joseph Hamrock, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer. “Ohio´s energy law promotes the development of alternative energy by establishing increasing benchmarks for renewable resources by 2025. Although we have proposed to purchase up to 300 megawatts from wind in our Electric Security Plan to meet the state´s near-term benchmarks, the establishment of this site reaffirms the potential for wind in Ohio.”
In addition to the agreements with Paulding Wind Farm II LLC, AEP Ohio has contracted for other renewable energy resources. AEP Ohio has a long-term power agreement for 100 MW of wind energy from the Fowler Ridge II Wind Farm located in Indiana and a long-term power agreement for solar energy from the 10.08-MW Wyandot Solar facility in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Recently, AEP Ohio announced entering into a memorandum of understanding to negotiate an agreement for solar energy with Turning Point Solar from a 49.9-MW facility to be built in southeastern Ohio.
AEP owns and operates 310.5 megawatts of wind energy in Texas. AEP also has agreements to purchase 1,572 megawatts from wind power facilities in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Texas.
AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company in Ohio, and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio. The company serves all or part of 61 counties in Ohio and two in West Virginia.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.