The Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) served 543,100 customers in 2020 located in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. In 2020, SWEPCO served a total of 187,500 Texan customers, including 152,500 residential, 30,400 commercial, 4,400 industrial, and 200 other customers.
SWEPCO began providing wind-sourced energy to their customers in 2009, and served up 469 megawatts (MW) of this power via facilities in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas with whom they have long-term contracts. These facilities, whether privately or corporately owned, produce the power that is then sold to SWEPCO via these contracts.
Considering the current shift in focus from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources by government and agency pressures, international investors, and customer requests, SWEPCO issued Requests for Proposals for up to 3,000 MW of wind, up to 300 MW of solar, and up to 250 MW of short-term accredited deliverable capacity in June 2021.
SWEPCO is actively increasing reliance upon renewable energy sources. As more of these renewable energies are secured from wind and solar plants in southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and northeast Louisiana, several fossil fuel plants are being retired including the Dolet Hills plant in Mansfield, LA in 2021, the Pirkey plant in Hallsville, Texas in 2023, and the Welsh plant in Cason, Texas which is scheduled to cease coal operations in 2028.
“This transition puts us further along the path to achieve AEP’s goal of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050,” SWEPCO states.
The Welsh Power Plant has a capacity of 1,053 MW provided by Units 1 and 3 at 525 MW and 528 MW respectively. Low-sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming is shipped by rail to the plant. The coal is then pulverized into a fine powder, not unlike face powder, and injected into the furnaces where it burns at extremely high temperatures, turning water circulating in huge boilers into steam. The steam is then piped into giant turbines where the spinning machinery drives the generators that actually produce the electricity.
These generators produce electricity at 18,000 volts, but transformers increase this to 345,000 volts for more efficient transmission to customers’ homes and businesses.
Units 1 and 3 of the Welsh Power Plant were placed into service in 1977 and 1982 respectively, and both were taken through a major environmental retrofit project that was completed in 2016 at a cost of $411 million.
The emissions stack, according to one of the personnel of the Welsh Power Plant, releases cleaner air than the plant takes in from the atmosphere around it, except for carbon. It is this carbon that is so concerning to climate control activists.
SWEPCO’s number one goal is to provide affordable, reliable power to their thousands of customers. Concerns regarding climate change have led SWEPCO to determine that "we need to transition from fossil to renewable energy,” said Jennifer Harland, SWEPCO’s External Affairs Manager.
To reach toward those goals, SWEPCO purchased 54.5 percent, or 809 MW, of the North Central Energy Facilities (NCEF) project which is composed of three new wind farms in north-central Oklahoma. This purchase is expected to provide 1,484 MW of clean energy—enough to power 440,000 homes.
The Sundance wind facility, with a capacity of 199 MW, began commercial operation in April 2021. Maverick wind facility of 287 MW began operation in Sept. of 2021, and Traverse, offering 998 MW, began in March 2022. Traverse is the largest single wind farm to be built at one time in North America.
SWEPCO has made plans to add 72.5 MW of solar energy to its resource mix with the Rocking R Solar Facility located near Shreveport in 2024. This is expected to provide enough solar energy to power roughly 12,000 homes per year.
While renewable energy sources may be useful, discussions concerning them are often clouded in untruths that make it difficult to formulate an honest opinion concerning their viability. Convention of States supports the truth and strives to present it as clearly and concisely as possible. This includes the truth of Article V in the US Constitution.
You can learn more about the Convention of States Project here.
