American Electric Power (AEP) has brought online the 998MW Traverse Wind Energy Center in the US state of Oklahoma.
The 365-turbine project is now providing 3.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity to AEP’s Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) customers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The facility spans Blaine and Custer counties in north central Oklahoma and features GE 2MW hardware.
Traverse is the third and final wind project to compose the North Central Energy Facilities, which provide 1484MW of clean energy and will save customers an estimated $3bn in electricity costs over the next 30 years, AEP said.
The North Central Energy Facilities also include the 199MW Sundance and 287MW Maverick wind farms, which began commercial operation in April and September 2021 respectively.
Traverse, Maverick and Sundance represent a $2bn investment.
The projects were developed by Invenergy and are owned by PSO and SWEPCO.
AEP chairman, president and chief executive Nicholas Akins said: “Traverse is part of the next chapter in AEP’s transition to a clean energy future.
“The commercial operation of Traverse – the largest single wind farm ever built at once in North America – and the completion of the North Central Energy Facilities is a significant milestone in our efforts to provide clean, reliable power to our customers while saving them money.
“AEP is investing $8.2bn in regulated renewables and nearly $25bn in the transmission and distribution systems through 2026 to modernise the grid, enhance reliability and resilience and deliver more emissions-free energy to our customers.
“Including North Central, we plan to add approximately 16,000MW of wind and solar in our regulated states by 2030 as part of our goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”