US utility Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) has received approval from Louisiana regulators to acquire a 200MW solar PV project.
Along with the solar project, the subsidiary of investor-owned utility American Electric Power (AEP) will acquire two other wind projects with a total capacity of up to 999MW for the three renewable projects.
Renewables developer Invenergy will construct the three projects that will then be acquired by SWEPCO. The 200MW solar PV project will be located in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
The approval from the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) comes more than a year after SWEPCO sought approval to acquire the Louisiana solar asset which at the time was expected to be operational by the end of 2025.
Parent company AEP recently sold 1.3GW of its unregulated renewables portfolio to Invenergy and alternative asset manager Blackstone – which made a further US$1 billion investment into Invenergy this month – for nearly US$1.5 billion.
“SWEPCO’s analysis of our generation needs showed that the lowest cost, best value option for capacity was adding wind and solar resources,” said Brett Mattison, SWEPCO president and chief operating officer. “We appreciate our regulatory commissioners allowing us to bring more low-cost, renewable energy to Louisiana customers.”
