The Nebraska Public Power District is looking hard at adding two more wind farms and sharing their power with other utilities.
The Columbus-based utility’s board of directors has authorized negotiations to buy power from a combine of Midwest Wind Energy and Edison Mission Midwest, two private companies, to build wind farms near Petersburg, just southwest of Norfolk, and Broken Bow in central Nebraska.
Each would produce 80 megawatts of power.
Building both farms depends on NPPD getting other utilities to buy half the power. Without other buyers, the Broken Bow wind farm would not be built and NPPD would buy all the Petersburg power, NPPD spokesman Mark Becker said.
Buying 80 megawatts would be in line with NPPD’s plan to add 80 megawatts of wind power every other year to reach 533 megawatts of wind-driven power by 2020, Becker said, up from 97 megawatts today.
If negotiations are successful, NPPD could sign contracts this year and the Petersburg and Broken Bow wind farms could be operational by end of 2010 or early in 2011.
NPPD owns and operates a 36-turbine, 60-megawatt farm at Ainsworth.
NPPD takes about half of its power and the Omaha Public Power District buys 10 megawatts.
Other utilities buy the rest.
NPPD buys half of the power from Edison Mission Midwest’s 80-megawatt Bloomfield farm. OPPD buys 25 and other utilities the rest.
Contact the writer:
444-1081, virgil.larson@owh.com
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