Dive Brief:

• Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) said Thursday it signed deals for 600 megawatts (MW) of wind power from three projects in the state. The 20-year contracts stem from a solicitation the Tulsa-based unit of AEP made in June. Pricing details were not disclosed. 
• The amount is three times more than what the utility had sought, PSO said in a statement, citing "extraordinary pricing opportunities" in the market that will lower utility costs by an estimated $53 million in the first year and even more thereafter.
• The deals involve the planned 199.8-MW Apex Clean Energy Balko wind farm; the 198.8-MW NextEra Energy  Resource's Seiling project; and the 200-MW Goodwell project being developed by TradeWind Energy. Oklahoma regulators must approve the contracts. The utility will take delivery of the power by Jan. 1, 2016.

Dive Insight:

The PSO deal is only the latest in a string announced by utilities in the past year where the prices offered in the market for wind power compete favorably over the long term with fossil-fueled baseload generation. The deals also seems to confirm research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that found the cost of electricity from onshore wind would drop 12% by 2016 thanks to a mix of lower-cost equipment and gains in output efficiency.