Wind part of energy secretary’s power plan

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Wind part of energy secretary’s power plan

Chris Day

The answer may be blowing in the wind, or at least part of the answer, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy Robert Wegener said.

Wegener discussed Oklahoma’s energy policies last week at the SmartEnergy Source Forum sponsored by the Central Rural Electric Cooperative in Stillwater.

Wind farms definitely play a role in Oklahoma’s energy plans, but natural gas, geothermal energy and energy conservation are partners in energy.

Natural gas will be the backbone of electricity production. It’s clean, domestic and underutilized, Wegener said. Conservative estimates show the United States has 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

“That’s more energy than all of the oil in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

It’s a nonrenewable fuel, but meshes well with wind and solar power because natural-gas fueled power plants can respond quickly if the wind dies or clouds roll in.

“It would be folly to develop wind without natural gas in the mix,” he said.

Wind farms are the second plank in the policy, Wegener said, adding wind power is a frontrunner because it’s more commercially available than solar.

Distribution is wind power’s major problem. Transmission lines have to be constructed between wind farms and utilities. Oklahoma is a member of the Southwest Power Pool which recently agreed on a policy to share the cost of transmission line construction among its members. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must approve the plan.

“It’s all down to transmission. There haven’t been any major improvements to the transmission grid in 30 years,” he said.

The grid needs to be reworked. When that happens, it will produce economic benefits much like construction of the Interstate highway system did 50 years ago, he said.

Energy conservation is the final piece of the puzzle.

Power use is growing, and electricity generation can’t keep up with that growth, he said.

So, consumers need to use less power. Incentives need to be in place to encourage residential and business consumers to add insulation, install high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units and promote construction of energy-efficient new homes.

“It’s cheaper to reduce demand than it is to build nuclear power plants at a cost of $6 to 8 billion or coal-fired plants at a cost of $2.5 billion and up,” he said.

Stillwater NewsPress - Wind part of energy secretary’s power plan