Generating plant will be named after Edmond's mayor

Mayor Charles D. Lamb has been on the municipal power board since 1993. He has been the chairman since 2001, the longest-tenured elected official to serve as chairman.

Preliminary plans are under way at the site for the natural gas combustion turbine facility that is scheduled for operation in 2015.

The center will be called the Charles D. Lamb Energy Center.

“It is a huge honor,” Lamb said. “This is a unique project. It is the first one that (the municipal authority) is 100 percent the owner and operator.”

In the past, the municipal authority has been a partner in such projects.

Lamb was instrumental in the innovation and development of the authority's competitive utility program that started in 1995.

The voluntary program provides municipal authority members a way to evaluate and improve their electric utility operations, which allows them to better compete in the electric utility industry.

Lamb was appointed Edmond mayor last year after serving on the city council 15 years.

Lamb said when he was assigned to represent Edmond on the municipal authority board he wasn't familiar with the state governmental agency that was created to serve cities and towns that own and operate their electrical distribution systems and is governed by the members.

The authority serves 39 municipal-owned electric systems in Oklahoma.