American Electric Power Company Inc. announced a deal to buy 250 megawatts of wind energy, some of which will serve customers in Ohio
The Columbus-based utility said the deal is composed of three 20-year agreements, one of which calls for its AEP Ohio subsidiary to buy 100.5 megawatts from a wind farm in Benton County, Ind., developed by BP Wind Energy.
AEP’s Indiana Michigan Power subsidiary is set to purchase 50 units from the same wind farm, while its Appalachian Power unit is contracted to buy 100.5 megawatts from an Illinois wind farm.
The company said the deals, financial terms for which weren’t disclosed, are part of an effort to add 1,000 megawatts of wind energy to its generation by 2011. The latest deals bring AEP past the 900-megawatt mark.
“Since we built the first utility-scale wind farm in Texas nearly 14 years ago, AEP has supported the development of renewable generation to help diversify the U.S. electricity generation mix and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” AEP CEO Michael Morris said in a release. “We have been able to effectively execute our aggressive plan to add 1,000 megawatts of wind energy to serve our customers in just a few years due to the rapid growth in U.S. wind projects.”
AEP (NYSE:AEP) delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states, including about 1.5 million Ohio customers. The company last year earned $1.38 billion on $14.6 billion in revenue.