AEP Completes Acquisition of 227 MW Wind Project in Texas

AEP has completed the purchase of 75 percent, or 227 MW, of the Santa Rita East wind project from Invenergy Renewables in San Angelo, Texas.

American Electric Power (AEP), has announced that it has completed the purchase of 75 percent, or 227 MW, of the Santa Rita East wind project from Invenergy Renewables in San Angelo, Texas.

The company announced that the acquisition was made by its wholly-owned renewable arm AEP Renewables. Under the agreement, Invenergy will retain 25 percent ownership of the project.

Nicholas K. Akins, AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer said that the company’s long term strategy is to diversify into clean energy generation. And that the company has reached nearly 70 percent of its renewable investment goal for 2023.

“AEP’s long-term strategy, driven by the expectations of our customers and technology advances, includes diversifying our power plant portfolio with clean, renewable generation. This acquisition increases our contracted renewable generation portfolio to 1,302 megawatts. We’ve targeted approximately $2.2 billion in capital investment in our contracted renewables business by 2023, and combined with our purchase of wind, solar and battery assets in April, we have achieved nearly 70 percent of our contracted renewables investment goal,” said Akins.

In addition to Santa Rita East, AEP added 724 MW of wind and battery generation to its contracted renewable generation portfolio in April.

Long-term virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) are in place with Grupo Bimbo, Merck and Novartis for AEP Renewables’ share of the Santa Rita East generation.    

Recently, AEP announced that its Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) and Southwestern Electric Power Co (SWEPCO) companies are seeking regulatory approvals to purchase three wind projects, totaling 1,485 megawatts (MW), that are currently under development in Oklahoma. The projects include a 999-MW wind facility being built north of Weatherford, a 287-MW wind facility being built southwest of Enid, and a 199-MW facility being built south of Alva. The three projects are also being developed by Invenergy.