Alabama Power representatives attend wind farm dedication
Alabama Power representatives traveled to Oklahoma in September to join local officials and Italian executives from Enel Green Power to dedicate one of that state’s largest wind farms.
The Chisholm View Wind Project, which is owned by Rome-based Enel, has been providing electricity to Alabama Power customers since late 2012. The project’s 140 wind turbines, located in Grant and Garfield counties in rural northwest Oklahoma, can produce enough power to serve about 80,000 homes, according to information from Enel.
“I cannot make it to all dedications because they are simply too far away sometimes. But I’m very happy that I made it here,” Enel CEO Francesco Starace told the gathering, according to a story published by the Enid News and Eagle newspaper. The last dedication he attended was for a company wind project in Chile, Starace said. That project, the largest in that country, is less than half the size of Chisholm View.
Enel’s North American CEO, Francesco Venturini, praised Alabama Power, local officials and the Enel team for their “old-fashioned hard work, culminating in the wind-power generating plant that we now see around us.”
Chisholm View is one of Alabama Power’s two 20-year power purchase agreements involving wind farms. The two agreements are expected to produce up to 404 megawatts of electricity – enough to power the equivalent of 115,000 homes. The other agreement is with the Buffalo Dunes Wind Project, now under construction near Garden City, Kan. It is expected to begin producing power for Alabama Power early next year.
John Kelley, Alabama Power’s resource planning director, said under both purchase power agreements, the company has the flexibility to use the generated wind energy to serve customers and retire the associated renewable energy credits (RECs), or sell the energy and RECs to others, either separately or bundled together.
Kelley, who spoke at the Chisholm View dedication, said the project overcame a number of potential challenges, thanks to the close working relationship of the partners, as well as coordination with government and regulatory agencies. He said the project was the “right thing to do” for Alabama Power customers, who will save money over the life of the agreement.
He noted that both of Alabama Power’s purchase power agreements with wind farms provide the company access to cost-effective energy that is expected to displace higher-cost energy Alabama Power would otherwise have to produce or obtain.
