PAULDING, Ohio — Later this summer, more than 200 wind turbines are expected to be producing electricity in two counties in northwestern Ohio.

A 152- turbine wind farm developed by Iberdrola Renewables is scheduled to be in commercial operation in Paulding and Van Wert counties by next quarter, and a 55-turbine farm operated by EDP Renewables (formerly Horizon Wind Energy) has been up and running in Paulding County since July 2011.

Iberdrola’s first towers went up at its Blue Creek farm in June 2011. EDP started erecting towers at its Timber Road II wind farm in spring 2011.

While EDP’s Timber Road II project did begin operations last year, the turbines have more recently been stilled because of a blade failure on one of the turbines, said Erin Bowser, director of project management for the company’s Eastern Region. The incident happened in late April and Bowser said she expects the turbines to be restarted in the next week or so.

“We take this extremely seriously and we’re going to investigate this event before we restart,” she noted. “Vestas (the turbine manufacturer) is also doing its own analysis.”

EDP reached agreement in 2010 on a 20-year contract to sell electricity generated from the turbines to American Electric Power. The turbines have a capacity to produce 99 megawatts (MW), enough to power more than 27,000 homes annually, according to EDP.

Iberdrola will sell some of the electricity from Blue Creek to FirstEnergy Solutions, but is actively marketing the farm’s output to other potential buyers, said Paul Copleman, Iberdrola’s communications manager. Blue Creek turbines are expected to generate 304 MW, which could power about 76,000 homes annually.

The timing of two wind companies constructing farms in the same area of the state is due in part to legislation passed in Ohio in 2008 calling for an alternative energy standard, Bowser explained. The state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard requires that by 2025, a quarter of electricity sold in the state must be generated from alternative energy sources.

At least half of that energy must come from renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, biomass and solar. The standard also requires that half of the renewable energy must come from facilities in Ohio.

“The standard created a market for wind power in the state that didn’t previously exist,” she said. “Developers were eager to find the best areas in the state for their wind farms.”

Paulding and Van Wert counties were ideal because of the available wind, their convenience to the electrical grid, the availability of wide, open spaces and their supportive communities, Bowser stated. EDP spent two years educating people in the area about wind energy and lease agreements, she noted.

“We were met with a very supportive group of farmers, landowners and county officials,” she said. “It did take time for landowners to be comfortable entering into a lease with us and understanding what we wanted to do on their land, what construction would look like, what a partnership would look like.”

Company officials bused anyone interested to its completed wind farm in Illinois and to another under construction so they could see and hear it for themselves, she added.

The height of the towers from the ground to the top of a blade is 485 feet, Bowser said. At the Timber Road II farm, the turbines are about a mile apart. Each turbine has the ability to slowly turn in the direction of the wind to best capture it, she noted.

EDP has plans to complete phases I and III of the Timber Road farm. Phases I and III will also be in Paulding County just north of the existing farm, and each will have about 27 turbines, Bowser said. There is no timetable for construction to begin, she added.

Officials with wind companies such as EDP and Iberdrola are concerned about the future of the federal production tax credit that expires at the end of the year. The program provides a 2.2-cent per-kilowatt-hour credit for the first 10 years of a renewable energy facility’s operation.

With Iberdrola’s Blue Creek facility nearly finished, the company does have other development work ongoing in Ohio, Copleman said.

“Policy uncertainty is hampering development efforts all over the country, for us and others,” he noted, adding the lack of a decision on the future of the tax credit has made projecting the industry for 2013 and beyond “murky.”

Iberdrola officials are optimistic the tax credit will be extended by Congress later this year, Copleman stated. “We continue to see bipartisan support for its extension and it continues to be a proven driver of job creation and investment in both ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states,” he said.

“We also have a positive outlook for the U.S. wind market in general. We take the long view of the market and see a great wind resource, technology that’s continually improving and bringing down costs and communities that want wind power.”

EDP is also hopeful the tax credit will be extended, Bowser said. The company is planning for future farms in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, though development has slowed in the Hoosier State in the last year or so, she noted.

“The Indiana legislature did enact a renewable energy standard, but for all intents and purposes, it’s voluntary,” she explained. “The standard didn’t create the stable market that the (mandatory) one did in Ohio.”