SWEPCO settles with mix of public, private groups in Louisiana over wind power proposal

Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) reached a settlement agreement this week with parties in Louisiana — including the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) Staff, the Alliance for Affordable Energy, and Walmart, Inc. — regarding its proposal to add 810 MW of wind energy.

While this agreement is subject to final approval by the LPSC, it represents forward momentum on a plan to add three new wind facilities to SWEPCO’s portfolio, alongside its sister company, Public Service of Oklahoma (PSO). All three of the facilities are located in north central Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Corporate Commission already signed off for PSO to go ahead earlier this year.

“This project is a key part of our long-term goal of serving customers with a resource mix of more than one-third renewable energy. In addition to the environmental benefits of wind energy, SWEPCO customers will save an estimated $2 billion over the 30-year expected life of the new facilities,” SWEPCO President and COO Malcolm Smoak said. “We appreciate the hard work of all the participants in this regulatory review as we seek to bring more low-cost renewable energy to Louisiana customers.”

The SWEPCO proposal is scalable to align with regulatory approvals state by state, with their respective commercial limitations. To that end, two states that approve the project could pick up the slack — and extra megawatts — if one state does not support the proposal.

Parties in Arkansas are also involved, and an agreement with them was reached in January 2020. A similar regulatory process in Texas remains to be explored. At the national level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has already approved the facilities’ acquisition by SWEPCO and PSO.