The City of Okmulgee will receive a check for $26,638.98 from Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) as an incentive for installing high-efficiency lighting in City facilities.

The recent lighting retrofits qualified for PSO’s Model Cities program, which helps cities and local governments reduce operating costs by identifying and implementing energy efficiency improvement projects. Incentives are paid for qualifying projects based on the total amount of energy the new equipment will save.

It’s estimated the new energy-efficient lighting will save 282,246 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year.

"The amount of the incentive certainly helps validate our investment in energy efficiency," said Okmulgee City Manager, Bob Baxter. "But beyond the incentive, the Model Cities Programs helped us identify ways we can conserve energy and save money, and those savings can be reinvested directly into our community."

PSO Customer Services Representative Lyle Stogner said that Model Cities has proven to be a valuable tool in helping PSO-served communities reduce electrical demand and hold down costs.

"We identified a real need for an energy efficiency program that specifically targets cities and local governments," said Stogner. "By partnering with the City of Okmulgee to reduce energy costs, their valuable resources can be used for other needed projects."

PSO, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is an electric utility company serving more than 530,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. With headquarters in Tulsa, PSO has 4,321 megawatts of generating capacity and provides electricity to 230 cities and towns across a service area encompassing 30,000 square miles. News releases and other information about PSO can be found on the World Wide Web at www.PSOklahoma.com.