Published: May 01, 2008 08:21 am            

OG&E sets open house forums to discuss transmission line project

Rachael Van Horn

Assistant Editor



A chance to speak

With the purpose of keeping the public well informed about the process surrounding wind energy development, Oklahoma Gas and Electric is planning some open house forums, said OG&E spokesman Gil Broyles.

The open houses are scheduled for Woodward, Canton, Piedmont and Okarche in May. Each meeting invites landowners and the public to view tentative plans for transmission lines slated to run from Oklahoma City to Woodward and from Woodward to Guymon. The lines are needed to connect Western Oklahoma’s wind energy production to the main power grid, Broyles said.

“The selection of the route for the planned transmission lines is something that we take very seriously,” Broyles said. “ We know it is complex and we not only take into account all the factors that we can identify but we also want to allow input from the people who live along the route about factors they want to call our attention to.”



Where we have been

The prospects of wind development have been sharply criticized by a some in Western Oklahoma who are adamant about its impact on wildlife, as well as the scar the group believes it imparts on an otherwise undeveloped region of the state.

The group remains vociferously opposed to ever developing public lands but are also ambivilant about wind development in any form.

One of the most outspoken critics, Sue Selman of the Selman Guest Ranch and birding retreat north of Woodward, has said the wind turbines decrease the attraction of the region as a haven for outdoor sportsmen and negatively impacts various species of wildlife.

Of late, the groups have gathered to be heard in public forums including one in March that was the catalyst for OG&E’s decision to scrap plans to develop wind energy on Cooper Wildlife Management Area.

But even while that battle raged, state legislators passed a bill in the Senate that indicated its open support of the development of renewable energy and hints at who would foot the bill and when they could start paying if the bill is signed into law.

Senate Bill 1985, authored by Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward, grants utility companies the leverage to make a request to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to charge all rate payers for the cost of the planned transmission lines before they are ever built.

Laughlin is pushing for the measure in an effort to support the growing infrastructure which provides an economic development benefit to the state, he said in a recent interview. He isn’t alone. In Texas, Oldham County judge Don Allred testified in a recent hearing to the Texas House Regulated Industry Committee that the Wildorado Wind Ranch will add $250 million to the tax base there. Allred believes it is the money that can keep Oldham County on par with the rest of Texas.

The rate increase will be overseen and approved or disapproved, as always, by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

According to Matt Skinner, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, there is no historic reference for this type of pre-taxed project and so he cannot anticipate what kind of rate increase OG&E customers might see.

In addition, Skinner said, even if the bill is signed into law, the company still must prove its case before the Corporation Commission that the project will be put to use and will indeed benefit rate payers.

“We have only had one case come before us under a preapproval law,” Skinner said. “It was for the Red Rock facility and the commission had to decide wheather they had made their case and in that case, the commission said ‘No, you have not proven your case’,” Skinner said.

The facility was never built.



The price tag and the product

The cost of the transmission lines for both phases - Phase One, which spans from Oklahoma City to Woodward and Phase Two from Woodward to Guymon - adds up to about $250 million, Broyles said. OG&E serves 762,000 customers in Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas.

The tentative plan, known as Phase One, is to emplace high voltage transmission lines from Oklahoma City where the main substation in the northwest quadrant of Oklahoma City will essentially do a balancing act with the power and redistribute it to all areas of the state.

Those lines would run from the Piedmont substation between Kingfisher and Okarche, and from there, would follow one of two proposed tracks north and west to Woodward. Phase Two has not been proposed yet while the company awaits the results from the forums.



Where does electricity come from?

For years OG&E’s power production in the state has been performed in eight locations, Muskogee, Seminole, Red Rock, Harrah, Mustang, McClain, Enid and a small production capacity in Woodward that is used during peek usage to offset the need during hot months.

The plants are powered by coal and natural gas, Broyles said.

“The transmission lines will allow us to take that power capacity and use it all around the state just like we have done with the power plants in other parts of the state for the northwestern part,” Broyles said.



The trail ahead

Currently there are 80 wind turbines generating power at the Centennial Wind Farm located north of Fort Supply. Those were built and are owned by OG&E, Broyles said.

There are another 35 wind turbines north of Woodward, known as the Sooner Wind Farm. These turbines were built by Florida Power and Light Company and leased to OG&E.

In all, the turbines provide almost three percent of the electrical production capacity for the company’s rate payers.

The way the system works is to allow technicians to turn down the coal or natural gas fired production when the wind is blowing - effectively replacing that production with the renewable resource of wind, said OG&E spokesman Brian Alford in an earlier interview.

In California, wind power represents about two percent of the power generated and there, that is enough to power San Francisco, according to a California Wind Power website.

At present, though, the system in Oklahoma is not used as efficiently as it could be because of a lack of transmission ability from Western Oklahoma to substations, Broyles said.

“It’s a little bit like the chicken and egg scenario because we have the wind farms but there has always been inadequate transmission to that part of the state,” Broyles said. “What we are doing is breaking the stalemate by developing the transmission lines.”

There are approximately 800 to 900 landowners along the routes that could be impacted by the lines. Each should receive a letter from OG&E this week regarding the open houses.

Those landowners will also receive information about how the system of a right-of-way lease will take place between them and the utility, Broyles said. The entire proposed route will take place on privately owned land with lease agreements opposed to public lands, Broyles said.

“We are very aware that there are many opinions about wind farm development but also transmission lines,” Broyles said. “That is why we are proceeding so carefully, out of respect for our neighbors and the resources in that area.”



Our neighbors and wind energy



According to Broyles, Oklahoma sits in sixth place in wind energy development. The state trails Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington State.

In Texas, electricity rate payers are peering into a similar egg diorama of wind energy issues. In West Texas from the Panhandle to McCamey, there are no transmission lines and that is retarding the further growth of wind energy development, according to a story in the Amarillo Globe-News written by Kevin Welch that ran April 25th.

Rate payers there would also bear the burden of paying for the improvement of electricity transmission lines, according to the story.

In Washington State, legislation is farther advanced and began more than 15 years ago in earnest. Among other legislation supporting the industry, its legislation includes tax incentives and a payback program for residential customers who install their own wind energy systems as well as companies who develop the resource among other renewable sources of power., according to an informational site called Small Wind-State-by-State. The website can be accessed through http://www.awea.org/smallwind/washington.html.

But like Oklahoma and Texas, Washington has been forced to navigate a complicated web of issues related to connection of all those differing power resources.

*****

The OG&E open houses are open to the public and there will be refreshments available. Those with questions before the open house may call 1-888-382-3624 or log onto ogetransmission@oge.com.

Meetings dates are as follows:

1. Woodward at 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6 at Josie Adams Cultural Center, 818 Main Street.

2. Canton at 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 8 at the Canton Community Center, N. Armour.

3. Piedmont, at 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 at the Piedmont Commuity Center, 314 Edmond Road NW.

4. Okarche, at 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 15, Holy Trinity, 211 W. Missouri.

        

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