WATONGA — Public Service Company of Oklahoma, an electric utility company with more than half a million customer accounts across the state, is constructing a major wind energy project that will include turbines here in Blaine County and generate revenue for some local districts.
The Traverse Project is the third installment of the North Central Energy Facilities, an endeavor that will collectively generate 1,485 megawatts of wind energy. Traverse will include turbines in both Custer and Blaine counties; the overall project will place turbines in Major and Woods counties, as well.
Kristi Sproul, senior external affairs coordinator for Public Service Companies of Oklahoma, says the North Central Energy Facilities will be the first wind power that PSO actually owns outright. The company previously purchased its wind power through agreements with other utilities.
“So we’re really excited,” she said, “that this will be a facility that we own.”
Construction on the Traverse Project is already underway and will take about 15 months overall, Sproul said. Over 70 turbines are already up, and construction will continue for several more months before the “commissioning process” of testing the facility before the turbines start producing commercial power.
Both Geary and Watonga schools will receive ad valorem tax dollars for PSO’s Blaine County landholdings, Sproul said. “Currently, there are assets — whether it’s transmission lines or turbines — that are sited to be located within the Geary and Watonga school districts, along with some others in Custer County.”
Those property taxes will help K-12 schools, CareerTech programs and county government, she said, but PSO can’t say exactly how many turbines will be in each district until construction is complete.
Wind energy, despite its lower carbon footprint, is sometimes criticized for being vulnerable to bad weather, dominating landscapes and even threatening birds. Sproul said the key for PSO is to have a diverse mix of energy production techniques.
“I think that diversity is key,” she said, “and that really proved itself in February with those terrible storms. There were times in February where several energy sources failed, whether it was coal, whether it was gas, or whether it was wind. And then there were other points in that twoweek span where each of those generating sources saved the day.
“So that event really proved the need for a diverse energy portfolio,” she said.
Sproul hopes the Traverse Project will generate revenue for Blaine County not just through taxes, but through construction workers patronizing local businesses and buying gas in town. The construction might lead to some temporary traffic delays — Watonga residents may have noticed turbine parts rolling down the street and stopping cars at the town’s major intersection — but she hopes the inconvenience will be more than repaid down the road.
Sproul said PSO has demonstrated over its century-plus in business that it knows how to be a good neighbor. “You don’t get to be in business that long without doing things right,” she said. “We’ve got a great track record of working with landowners, and working with other stakeholders of projects, because we live and work here, too. So we understand the Oklahoma Standard, and how things need to be done.”
Sproul said the Traverse Project should come on line in the first half of 2022.