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A solicitation has been issued for up to 280 MW of generating resources in Oklahoma -- and under the terms of the request for proposals all of the electricity chosen could come from wind or other renewables. The solicitation was issued on April 7 by a subsidiary of the American utility Central and South West Services Inc (CSW). The power supply, for Public Service Co of Oklahoma (PSO), must be commercially available beginning June 1, 2000.

Two separate requests for proposals (RFPs) have been issued as part of the same solicitation. One is for traditional supply-side generating resources. The other is for renewable -- wind, solar, biomass or hydro -- and small-scale, distributed resources, typically of 10 kW or less and located near electricity users. The winner could be a combination of

both types of resources, or a bid could propose that the entire generating capacity be met with one technology, such as wind. "There is not an allotment [between the two separate RFPs]," says CSW's Larry Jones.

Deadlines soon

Copies of the RFP can be bought for $50 each from CSW, based in Dallas, Texas. Proposals must be submitted by June 23 and contract negotiations are to be completed in May 1999. PSO serves 484,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma, including the city of Tulsa. CSW recently made news for its selection of a 75 MW wind project -- to be developed in Texas by FPL Energy Inc and consisting of Vestas turbines -- to meet demand for clean power (“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç, March 1998). CSW also owns and operates a 6.6 MW wind plant of Zond Z-40 turbines in the Davis Mountains of west Texas.

Its parent company is CSW Corp of Dallas, which owns and operates America's second largest electric utility system. Its four utility subsidiaries, in the south-central US, include PSO, based in Tulsa Oklahoma; Central Power & Light Company, in Corpus Christi, Texas; West Texas Utilities Company of Abilene, Texas; and Southwestern Electric Power Company, Shreveport, Louisiana. It also owns a regional electricity company in the United Kingdom, SeeBoard in Crawley, West Sussex.