Powering what’s next

Western Farmers Electric Cooperative pairs wind, solar and batteries to strengthen reliability and manage costs.

The first combined wind, solar and battery storage project in the Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) 17-state footprint is live and it is in our backyard, contributing to greater reliability and lower rates for cooperative members in Oklahoma.

The one-of-a-kind project is the result of forward-thinking planning from generation & transmission cooperative Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) in collaboration with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC.

The project, located in Garfield, Alfalfa and Major counties, is comprised of three components:

• 249 MW capacity of wind – operational in 2020
• 250 MW capacity of solar – operational in December 2025
• 252 MW/1,008 MWh of battery storage – operational in December 2025

“We are proud to strengthen our generation portfolio with clean, reliable, environmentally friendly energy,” said Gary Roulet, CEO of WFEC. “This project helps us responsibly expand zero-carbon generation while maintaining affordability and reliability for our members — delivering power even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.”

Roulet said integrating battery storage into the SPP energy market has been a learning process. The battery does not generate energy as wind and solar power do, but it is a device that must be charged and discharged strategically to yield the best results for the cooperative membership and the reliability of the SPP grid. That means charging it at night during off-peak hours when energy is cheaper and discharging it during peak hours in daytime to help offset higher energy rates.

“As a not-for-profit cooperative, any margins we generate help reduce rates for our member cooperatives,” Roulet said.

Beyond the benefit of storing power at a cheaper rate to use it in critical times, the battery storage provides 252 MW that WFEC can bid into the SPP day-ahead market while meeting a capacity requirement for SPP.

Roulet pointed out that during Winter Storm Fern the battery storage was charged and discharged multiple times, helping the cooperative to offset higher costs. He added the battery can be charged in about 4 hours, and it takes about 4 hours to discharge it at full output.

WFEC, which serves 17 distribution co-ops in Oklahoma and four in New Mexico, will be adding 75 MW of solar and 75 MW of battery storage in New Mexico, which will be live by 2026 and 2027 respectively. The co-op is also investing in new natural gas plant units at Anadarko and in Hugo.

“We invest in various generation sources because we want to deliver the most affordable and most reliable power to our members. This is the premise of the cooperative business model, we always look out for our members,” Roulet said.

What does 1 MW power mean?

A 1-megawatt (MW) power source can supply electricity to roughly 750 to 1,000 average U.S. homes at one time, depending on how much electricity those homes are using.

Here are a few other ways to think about it

1 MW = 1,000 kilowatts (kW)

Enough to power:

• A small hospital
• A large grocery store
• About 100–200 homes during peak summer demand
• Several hundred homes under normal average use