OGE Announces Plan To Expand Wind Energy

Tuesday, October 30th 2007, 1:51 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The chairman of OGE Energy says the company plans to quadruple its wind power production and help open western Oklahoma for development of more wind power projects.

In a speech to the Downtown Rotary Club in Oklahoma City Pete Delaney also announced a major transmission line project in western Oklahoma. A high-capacity power line from Oklahoma City to Woodward and eventually to Guymon would be necessary for wind-generated power in western Oklahoma to be transmitted to population centers in the rest of the state.

Delaney says the implementation of the company's plans should give more OG&E customers the choice of being up to 100% "green-power" users in a few years.

OG&E is based in Oklahoma City and is the state's largest electric utility. The company already has 170 megawatts of wind power. Under the plan, announced Tuesday, Delaney says that could be increased to about 770 megawatts.

The investment in wind energy development could move Oklahoma from being sixth in the nation to as high as third in wind power production behind Texas and California.