Energy: Customers get more options to aid environment
Wind developers continue flocking to Oklahoma, selling the electricity generated by the massive wind turbines to eager utility companies.
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Officials at Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma said wind power provides them some certainty in fuel costs, due to long-term contracts with developers who own the wind farms that increasingly populate western Oklahoma.
"We have a locked in price,” PSO spokesman Stan Whiteford said.
He said such deals with wind developers have allowed PSO to add power to its energy portfolio without increased costs to its customers.
"It is a great mitigating factor in keeping costs down,” Whiteford said.
OG&E customers can opt to get some or all of their electricity from wind power, but it costs them more money each month, spokesman Brian Alford said.
It is an option for people who want to protect the environment rather than those looking for cheaper electricity.
More than 12,000 OG&E customers have signed up for wind power since the first program was launched in 2002, even though it costs them a few extra dollars a month.
That fits with the results of a recent Sooner Survey, which showed 72 percent of Oklahomans were willing to pay more for wind power.
The University of Oklahoma is intent on powering its Norman campus with renewable energy by 2013, spurring OG&E to add a company-owned 101 megawatt wind farm near Woodward. It is expected to be operational soon.
That project will cost OG&E residential customers about 90 cents in 2010 and 80 cents in 2011 before the company seeks another rate increase from state regulators.
PSO has opted to buy power from wind farms.
Meanwhile, Alford said OG&E will consider any wind deal that is economically feasible.
Officials from both utility providers said they would consider adding more wind power in the future, if the circumstances are right.
"You want to make sure it makes economic sense for customers,” Alford said
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