OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Corporation Commission heard arguments about a preapproval case from the Attorney General’s o_ce and Oklahoma Gas & Electric in a special meeting on Thursday, though they did not come to a nal decision.
During the meeting the Oklahoma Attorney General’s o_ce and the Petroleum Alliance argued that the commission should dismiss a preapproval request from OG&E. The company has requested preapproval for the Frontier Energy Storage Project near Ponca City, which will expand generation capacity. Preapproval would also allow OG&E to raise costs with a rider to pay for the project.
The expansion of generation capacity would be through the development of Battery Energy Storage System sites, which would enhance grid stability. These BESS sites would store excess energy from low-demand periods and discharge it when there is higher demand.
According to testimony from Matthew Schuermann, vice president of power supply operations at OG&E, the BESS site that the utility is planning to build would “be capable of providing 420 hours of generation capacity to the system.”
The Attorney General’s o_ce and the Petroleum Alliance said the request for preapproval is invalid because the Corporation Commission only has jurisdiction over energy generation sites, not sites that store energy, like BESS sites.
OG&E said it recently received approval from the commission for three other projects to increase energy capacity. One of those projects allows OG&E to enter into a 20-year capacity purchase agreement with the Black Kettle battery energy storage facility near Enid. The Frontier Energy Storage Project would be di rent from Black Kettle because OG&E would own and operate the facility, rather than just purchasing energy from it.
The company said these projects are needed due to the growing demand from high-use customers like data centers. A Pew Research Center study found that data centers energy consumption in the US accounted for 4% of the country’s overall energy consumption in 2024.
The energy demand from data centers will only increase as larger hyperscale data centers are built in Oklahoma. According to the Data Center Maps website there are 37 data centers in Oklahoma, though not all of them are hyperscale.
In the Wednesday meeting, Corporation Commission Chairman Kim David said she was concerned that ratepayers do not believe the commission is doing enough to protect them from rising costs, especially rising costs due to data center development.
“We have asked the utilities to go out and work on a largeload tari 2that will protect the regular ratepayer when we have these large loads coming in,” David said.
A large-load tariff creates a different higher rate for customers that consume large amounts of energy to keep costs low for regular residential ratepayers while still allowing utilities to make enough money to pay for the infrastructure necessary to expand power generation.
The commission did not make a decision on the motion to dismiss during the special meeting or vote on preapproval for the Frontier Energy Storage Project.
Melissa Jacques is a freelance journalist covering state government at the Oklahoma State Capitol. She can be reached at melissaajacques@gmail.com.