American Electric Power Co. Inc., parent company to Public Service Company of Oklahoma, plans to continue investing in clean energy resources to build on its planned acquisition of wind projects in Oklahoma, despite lingering uncertainty from the coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming U.S. elections.
“The way I see it is we are just on the precipice of a massive transformation to renewable resources,” AEP Chairman, President and CEO Nicholas Akins said Oct. 22 on the company’s third-quarter 2020 earnings call. “And AEP, if you look at the runway, it’s pretty substantial.”
AEP in July reaffirmed its $2 billion commitment to acquiring the North Central wind projects in Oklahoma, which represent nearly 1,500 MW of capacity, despite Texas regulators’ rejection of the plan reported S&P Global Market Intelligence.
AEP announced in July 2019 plans to acquire three wind projects under development in Oklahoma from Invenergy LLC. The deal involves the acquisition of about 1,485 MW of wind capacity from the planned 999-MW Traverse Wind Farm, the 199-MW Sundance Wind Project and the 287-MW Maverick Wind Project by AEP subsidiaries Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and Southwestern Electric Power Co.
In February, AEP management said the company will likely issue equity and could sell assets to fund the North Central Wind projects.
Source: S & P Global Market Intelligence