Swepco applies to rebuild station at ashdown

Arkansas Business, Jan 5, 2009 by Mark Hengel

Southwestern Electric Power Co. of Shreveport, which wants to increase electric rates and continues to build a new power plant at Fulton, filed plans last week to rebuild its Patterson Station at Ashdown, a project that would cost about $12.4 million.

In a document filed with the Arkansas Public Service Commission, which would have to approve the plans, Swepco said it would replace the existing Patterson Station with a new station about a quarter-mile to the west on land it already owns.

The new station would be a 138Kv breaker-and-a-half facility--an upgrade from the existing station, which is 138/115 Kv. Swepco said the move to rebuild the Patterson Station is part of a plan to connect the Fulton plant to the electrical grid.

"The filing makes it look like a separate project, but it's all about our plan to service customers in 2012 and beyond," said Kacee Kirschvink, a Swepco spokesman.

Kirschvink said the Patterson Station would act like a large transformer for the Fulton plant, reducing voltage to levels suitable for public use.

The company expects the Fulton plant, known as the John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant, and the new Patterson Station to be complete by 2012, Kirschvink said.

The Fulton power plant will cost about $1.6 billion, up from the original estimate of $1.3 billion, Kirschvink said. Opposition to the plant from local landowners, hunters and environmentalists has caused construction costs to rise, she said.

Swepco said total construction costs on the new Patterson station would be about $9.4 million. The cost of moving transmission lines from the old site would be about $3 million.

Swepco has about 113,500 customers in Arkansas.