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American electric power
The United States energy market is one of the most profitable industries in the country today. However, the growing concern over the environmental effects of energy production has prompted major power producers to consider offering energy that comes from renewable sources. American Electric Power is one of those companies that have ventured into the renewable energy market to be able to meet the needs of consumers and business organizations who prefer to use electricity from renewable resources.
American Electric Power is a Columbus, Ohio-based corporation that invests and owns several electrical utility providers in the United States. It is present in 11 states and is the largest electrical utility provider in the country.
The company has already rolled out environmental initiatives. Recently, American Electric Power unveiled its plans to install an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) system in one of its coal-fired plants. This system is expected to reduce the emissions while increasing the total power output that can be made available to the consumers.
A huge portion of American Electric Power’s investments in the renewable energy market has been allocated to wind power purchases. In fact, American Electric Power owns the largest wind power capacity in the United States. It owns two facilities that produce a total of 310.5 megawatts in the state of Texas. The company also has long-term contracts to purchase a total of 467 megawatts from wind farms in Oklahoma and Texas. Moreover, the company also has a program called “Learning from Wind,” whose aim is to disseminate wind power education and renewable energy research by installing small-scale wind turbines.
The Trent Mesa Wind Farm, located near Abilene in Nolan and Taylor County, Texas, is owned by American Electric Power. The plant was completed in 2001 and is currently capable of producing 150 megawatts. Under a wholesale contract, the power output that comes from this project is wholly sold to TXU.
Desert Sky Wind Farm, another wind farm, is located in Iraan in Pecos County, Texas and has been operating since 2001. The output of this plant is sold to CPS Energy of San Antonio under a similar wholesale energy supply agreement.
Other than the electricity generated from its own wind farms, American Electric Power is also an active purchaser of power generated from other wind farms. FPL Energy’s Southwest Mesa wind farm near McCamey, Texas, supplies American Electric Power with 75 megawatts of clean electricity. The Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which is a unit of American Electric Power, purchased 147 megawatts from FPL Energy’s Weatherford Wind Energy Center and 151.2 megawatts from the Horizon Wind Energy-owned Blue Canyon II facility near Lawton. These purchases have made American Electric Power the largest purchaser of wind-generated electricity. PSO has also unveiled plans of purchasing an additional 94.5 megawatts from the Sleeping Bear project in Oklahoma.
American Electric Power is also actively seeking out opportunities to develop wind power generation across the United States; the company has been conducting studies on the possibility of developing areas in Texas and its neighboring states and verifying if these areas can become wind farms. One of the results of this project was the six-megawatt Fort Davis wind farm in 1995. Located in Western Texas, the Fort Davis wind farm was one of the first facilities to use utility-scale wind turbines constructed under the Wind Turbine Verification Program jointly sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The Fort Davis Wind Farm has since been decommissioned, but this pioneering facility had set the precedent for more effective and efficient ways of producing electricity using wind power.
American Electric Power’s has a robust commitment to produce wind-generated electricity that isn’t subject to major interruptions. In 2007, it announced its expansion of its large-scale batteries to ensure reliability in areas where wind power can be intermittent. The sodium sulfur batteries will store an additional six megawatts of power that will allow capacity for growth and prevent equipment overload.
American Electric Power’s pioneering spirit in the field of renewable energy is proof that such efforts are feasible. The company is very optimistic that energy from renewable resources will be the way of the future and is currently charting the roadmap for everyone else who would like to follow.
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