An important first step in exercising your options for a wind energy project – whether very small or commercial size, is to contact the electric utility company that owns the electric wires connected to the property where the wind project is to be installed.
If you are currently an electric utility customer and the purpose of installing your wind project is to supply yourself with clean renewable energy. Here is a list of the utility contact people with whom you can discuss your plan:
AEP Ohio (Columbus Southern Power Company & Ohio Power Company)
Larry C. Hutchison
Customer Services
1 Riverside Plaza
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 716-1377
(614) 716-1414 (fax)
E-mail: lchutchison@aep.com
Dayton Power & Light Company:
Robert Adams
1065 Woodman Drive
Dayton, OH 45432
(937) 259-7906
(937) 259-7775 (fax)
E-mail: Robert.Adams@dplinc.com
Duke Energy Ohio
Jim Lemke
Consulting Engineer
1619 Defenbaugh Street
Kokomo, IN 46902
(765) 454-6196
(765) 454-6581 (fax)
E-mail: jim.lemke@duke-energy.com
First Energy (Cleveland Electric & Illuminating, Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison)
Bruce Remmel
Senior Engineer
2800 Pottsville Pike
PO Box 16001
Reading, PA 19612
(610) 921-6839
(330) 777-6188 (fax)
E-mail: bremmel@firstenergycorp.com
The PUCO rules for interconnecting generators such as wind turbine projects from 1 kilowatt to 20 megawatts in size to the local electric utility distribution systems are custom made to fit the size and location of your wind energy project. If you select the size range of the potential project, the interconnection rules will describe the technical requirements you must follow.
Customer guide for interconnection
Please note: Interconnection to a system that belongs to a municipal public power utility or a rural electric cooperative must follow the municipal utility or rural cooperative interconnection rules. Interconnection to the high voltage transmission system regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) must follow interconnection requirements of the regional transmission organization (RTO) operating the high voltage transmission system. If siting is required for your wind energy project, the interconnection process must commence prior to submission of a siting application to the Ohio Power Siting Board (OSPB).
If you want to install a wind project just for your own residential or business/institutional use, you will likely qualify for a net-metering customer billing option.
Net metering is a customer billing arrangement for customers who generate electricity solely for their own use. This arrangement can lower the customer’s electric utility bills in two ways:
As a net metering customer on a local electric company’s distribution system, your credit is limited to kilowatt-hour (kWh) charges only. Net metering customers are not reimbursed for distribution or transmission services. If you also have a demand (kilowatt) meter, these charges also will not be reimbursed.
It your electric meter does not measure both energy received from the utility as well as energy released back to utility’s system, you can request such a meter from your utility company.
New commercial wind farms (5 megawatts or greater) can receive a single siting certificate through our State’s convenient “one-stop” shopping process at the Ohio Power Siting Board. This unique siting process is made possible in Ohio because all eleven entities involved with approving the siting application are seated at the same table: the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO); the directors of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Departments of Agriculture, Development, Health, and Natural Resources; and a public member. The public member must be an engineer and is appointed by the governor from a list of nominees submitted by the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. Four non-voting legislative members are also on the Board: two from the Ohio House of Representatives and two from the Ohio Senate. Visit the OPSB website at http://www.opsb.ohio.gov/.
A wind project owner or operator may apply directly to the PUCO to become certified as a Competitive Retail Electric Service (CRES) provider in order to sell wind-generated electricity directly to retail customers. Instructions for how to be certified as a CRES provider.
Prices for retail sales of energy provided through PUCO-certified CRES providers should be negotiated with the retail customer or may be posted on the PUCO website “Apples-to-Apples”comparison for other providers’ electricity prices. Information on the price for electricity sold directly to a retail customer should be included in any written agreement with the retail customer.
To learn how to sell wind power to a utility company under a bilateral contract, please contact the utility company.
Unless you sign a contract with a utility that locks in your wind energy at a negotiated price, the price per megawatt-hour on the wholesale market can change from day-to-day, depending on changing conditions including the weather, the level of customer demand for energy and congestion on the grid.
Wholesale prices are set by markets run by the RTOs operating the high voltage transmission system. You should be aware that Ohio is served by two multi-state RTO wholesale markets - one operated by the Midwest ISO from Carmel, Indiana and the other by PJM from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. More information is available on these RTO websites at:
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