Jul. 30--Pelco Structural, LLC began operations in Claremore in 2005. Products manufactured by Pelco will help create the nation's future. Those products are large-scale, steel poles for transmission lines to carry the electricity generated by wind farms to customers across the nation.

Pelco Structural is currently in the process of filling its third national transmission grid project.

Wind is an alternative, renewable source of energy. The U.S. Department of Energy set a goal of generating 20 percent of the nation's energy from wind by 2030. With that goal in mind, wind farms began to blossom across the nation.

The nature of wind farms means they tend to be located in remote areas with low density population. Open spaces such as the wind swept plains of Western Oklahoma are some of the best places to capture that naturally-generated energy.

But for wind farms to have any impact that energy has to be transmitted over miles to the places where people live.

Pelco is providing part of that answer through supplying the poles to build the transmission lines so desperately needed to carry wind and other energy across the nation.

"What we do is very relevant right now," said Pelco Structural President Phil Albert.

In May 2002, then U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham wrote in a letter to President George W. Bush that "our nation's transmission system over the next decade will fall short of the reliability standards our economy requires and will result in additional bottlenecks and higher costs to consumers."

This letter followed a National Transmission Grid Study by the U.S. Department of Energy. Among the recommendations that came out of that study was the removal of constraints on interstate transmission to free up the electricity supply needed to meet growing needs of consumers from large industrial users to the little old lady next door.

Electricity cannot be stored. Additionally, small amounts of power are lost in transmission. An efficient, upgraded transmission system will lose less energy along the way and can carry electricity from a generation site to the consumer who needs it.

Industry officials have long been discussing the need for increased and improved transmission as a primary issue of concern for the future energy needs of Oklahoma and the nation.

As the U.S. works toward building a modern and efficient national transmission grid, Pelco Structural has been part of the answer to future energy transmission needs. No where has this hit more close to home than in the case of wind farms.

Pelco has the capacity to design and manufacture site-specific transmission lines.