Army signs long-term lease with PSO for energy resilience project at Ft. Sill

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  • PSO energy resilience project at Fort Sill
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FORT SILL – Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, a unit of American Electric Power, has signed a long-term lease with the U.S. Army for the siting of an energy resilience project at Fort Sill.

The proposed project is the result of a collaboration between the Army and PSO. Benefits of the project’s design include the addition of more clean energy to the power grid and enhanced power quality and energy supply in southwest Oklahoma.

The proposal calls for PSO to site a 36-megawatt reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) generator, plus photovoltaic solar panels providing up to 14 megawatts of power, on Fort Sill property, said Stan Whiteford, region communications manager for AEP.

“Under normal circumstances, the energy produced by the RICE generator and solar panels will be fed onto the grid to serve PSO customers,” Whiteford said. “However, in the event of a grid outage, the RICE generator and solar panels can be disconnected from the grid to provide Fort Sill with 100% of the energy the post would need to sustain critical missions for at least 14 days. That’s why it’s called an energy resilience project.”

PSO plans to seek approval from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission this year, Whiteford said. Construction is projected to begin in fall 2021.

“The proposed energy reliability and resilience project on Fort Sill is an excellent example of collaboration to modernize infrastructure and provide assured access to diverse supplies of energy,” he said.

The project would include a 30-year lease term with an option to extend for 10 additional years, for approximately 80 acres at Fort Sill.

PSO, a unit of AEP, is an electric utility company serving more than 557,000 customer accounts across 30,000 square miles in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma.

PSO, based in Tulsa, serves more than three dozen cities and towns in southwest Oklahoma, including Lawton, Altus, Apache, Cache, Cement, Cyril, Duncan, Elgin, Fletcher, Sterling, Rush Springs, Grandfield, Hobart, Manitou, Roosevelt, Snyder, Temple, Terral, Tipton, and Waurika.