Long-term wind generation contract boosts Appalachian Power’s wind generation

Appalachian Power recently announced a 20-year purchased power agreement comprising 120 megawatts (MW) of new wind generation, an acquisition that will increase the company’s wind generation by nearly one-third, to a total of 495 MW.

The long-term purchase by Appalachian Power aligns with the company’s Integrated Resource Plans (IRP) – forward-looking policies that will influence service areas in Virginia and West Virginia.

Appalachian Power’s new renewable energy generation will become available by 2018. The purchase was made possible by Congress’ extension of the Wind Production Tax Credit in November, a program that offered cost advantages to wind energy resources constructed over the next five years. Appalachian Power will receive the energy from its Bluff Point Wind Energy Center in Indiana, a facility that will be owned and operated by NextEra. The project was chosen by Appalachian to be included in a Request for Proposals that was issued earlier this year, having been selected from more than a dozen proposals.

Appalachian Power provides services to one million customers in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee, where it operates as AEP Appalachian Power. The company is a unit of American Electric Power, which ranks as one of the country’s largest electricity generators, with a 40,000-mile network and 223,000 miles of operated distribution lines.