Ouachita Electric Cooperative to build 1-megawatt solar facility

Ouachita Electric Cooperative of Camden is partnering with Today’s Power to build a 1-megawatt solar facility on 10 acres in Holly Springs, according to a news release. Today’s Power, a subsidiary of Little Rock-based Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, distributes and installs TKS photovoltaic systems.

The project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2017 and will include an array of 4,080 panels, encompassing 5.5 acres. The facility could provide enough electricity to power up to 250 homes. OEC members who purchase solar power generated by the facility can receive credit on their electric bills.

The power provider “chose the TPI product because of its safety attributes, the unique architecture of the solar panels and the reliability that has been demonstrated over the last year to meet the cooperative’s energy needs,” Mark Cayce, CEO of Ouachita Electric Cooperative, said in the release. “Partnering with local industries to bring the first utility-scale solar to Arkansas, demonstrating on our own office the feasibility and affordability of using solar power in South Arkansas, making community solar available to our members is just part of providing more value to being a cooperative member.”

This is the second project OEC and Today’s Power have worked on together. In 2016, they designed and built a 93-kilowatt solar facility that provides electricity to OEC’s headquarters, operations center and campus in Camden. Since it started in February 2016, the solar facility provides 95% of the electricity required for those buildings.

“Our solar systems are customized around a cooperative’s wholesale billing drivers and load characteristics specifically to produce maximum value for the cooperative,” Michael Henderson, president of TPI, said in the release.

OEC provides electric service to 9,400 meters across Ouachita, Calhoun, Dallas, Bradley and Nevada counties.