Sep. 12--Major energy players in government and business are trying to chart a billion-dollar wind frontier with Oklahoma in the middle.

They say the biggest hurdle to harnessing the region's renewable, clean and lucrative gusts is the transmission of the energy. Electricity transmission lines in rural areas, such as the Oklahoma Panhandle, are too small to satisfy the needs of populatio centers like Oklahoma City and Dallas. The plan is a logistical and financial unknown. States, their utilities and industry seek a way to spur economic development and harvest a valuable resource. The prospect is attracting outsiders who want to own the expanded transmission system, which is necessary to sell clean energy to the wind-starved east.

At stake is the development of a clean, endless energy source and the billions of dollars it may take to exploit it. Oklahoma wind power Wind blows hardest across the state's rural west side, far from the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas. Wind farms capture the wind energy with rows of turbines. Wind energy turns their blades, which rotate generators that create electricity. The elect icity can power a local facility or go out on a transmission line. Oklahoma wind farms can produce a maximum 689 megawatts, ranking fifth in the United States, said Oklahoma State University climatology professor Steven Stadler.

Transmission lines, which transport electricity from generation sites to consumers, have a relatively narrow capacity in some rural areas, ranging from 34,000 volts to 169,000 volts, said Les Dillahunty, vice president, regulatory for the Southwest Powe Pool, an association of seven states' officials and utilities coordinating transmission. Tapping a new source of energy would require an upgrade to at least 345,000 volts, he said. It's like turning a byway into a highway. "Having found wind in those rural areas, we're needing to transport a greater volume over those byways than they were designed to accommodate," Dillahunty said.

Who will develop? The Southwest Power Pool's suggestion is the X-Plan -- a $5 billion electric backbone that would pass through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The system would pass through the territories of utilities that may not want to develop it, said Oklahoma Secretary of Energy David Fleischaker, who represents the governor's office in the Southwestern Power Pool. They can transfer that right and still benefit from the grid, but give up responsibilities associated with finance, construction and operation, he said. Other utilities wanting to get the most from wind face the same option -- pay to build it or pay someone else to.

One company, ITC Great Plains, applied for Oklahoma utility status in July to acquire the right of eminent domain. Conflicts over right-of-way are some of the biggest hurdles, other than cost, associated with building transmission lines, said ITC Great lains President Carl Hulsig. Kansas designated the company as a utility in June. Texas is also considering an ITC Great Plains utility application. Michigan-based ITC Holdings established subsidiary ITC Great Plains in July 2006 to "address a recognized need for investment in the transmission infrastructure in Kansas and the Great Plains region," a company statement said.

"They realize the movement of electricity and power is the whole key to everything," said state Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, whose legislation in the last session created a power transmission task force. Oklahoma's incumbent utilities, such as Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., are expected to fight the company's application when the Oklahoma Corporation Committee holds hearings on it. OG&E spokesman Brian Alford said ITC Great Plains may end up raising rat s for customers, who foot the bill for electric generation, distribution and transmission. "If I'm president of a utility company, I would much rather partner with the Southwest Power Pool and own the transmission line from the beginning than have ITC build it and then say, 'Well, it cost us $80 million to build it and we'll sell it to you fo $100 million,'" Blackwell said.

The company wants to build "non-discriminatory" transmission lines that are open to any generation or demand, Hulsig said. "We plan on owning, operating and maintaining our facilities for the life of the project," he said. "We're thinking at least 50 years for most of these transmission lines." The company could collaborate with the utilities, but there is no established forum yet to parse out responsibility, Fleischaker said. "There is no road map in place in Oklahoma for providing opportunity for a private entity to bid for the rights of building transmission," he said. "This is a new frontier." The increased competition would help the development, said Oklahoma Deputy Secretary of Energy Bob Wegener.

"Competition in transmission projects could stimulate additional transmission projects and speed up the process," he said. Future challenges Transmission investment in the United States has been increasing since 1998, following an almost $3 billion decline from 1975 to that time, according to an Edison Electric Institute Survey of Transmission Investment. "This is a nationwide problem," said Oklahoma State University professor Rama Ramakumar. "Many places lack transmission capacity because people were not building transmission lines for a long time, because of right-of-way opposition and environmental vi ual pollution." Adding to the uncertainties is financing.

A phrase repeated by those studying the issue is that the lines would cost "a million dollars a mile." The utilities or ITC could develop the transmission lines under the guidance of the Southwest Power Pool and spread the cost among its members. But there are different formulas for cost-sharing between projects intended to improve grid reliability and projects intended to help the area economy, and definitions for each can be confusing. "One thing you'll hear a lot in meetings like this is that something that may be an economic transmission line today is needed for reliability tomorrow," he said.

"Tomorrow is defined loosely as two years, five years, 10 years down the line." Today's problems should not hinder what could be a positive development for Oklahoma, Fleischaker said. "Wind is a resource, period, and it's worth money," Fleischaker said "Oklahoma has that resource and to the extent that the laws promote the utilization of that resource, the people of Oklahoma will benefit. It's that simple."