GAHANNA, Ohio, Aug. 15, 2011 – American Electric Power, on behalf of its operating unit AEP Ohio and its subsidiary Columbus Southern Power, is proposing to construct a new high voltage transmission line to reinforce the company’s transmission system in the central Ohio area including Delaware and Franklin counties. 

            AEP Ohio will host a public informational meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, at Big Walnut High School, 555 South Old 3C Highway, Sunbury, Ohio.  The meeting will allow residents of the communities of Sunbury and Galena and Berkshire and Trenton townships to offer input, ask questions and learn more about the project.

            The proposed Trent-Vassell 138-kv line is an overhead line that will connect AEP Ohio’s Trent Station to AEP Ohio’s proposed Vassell Station. 

            The project is an approximate $3.67 million to $4.84 million investment by AEP into the central Ohio economy.   

             This project includes the construction of a new high voltage transmission line from the company’s Trent Station to the proposed Vassell Station near Sunbury.  The proposed,  approximately 2.6- to 3.1-mile line, is designed to enhance service and reliability and provide capacity for economic growth in Delaware County and the greater central Ohio area.  In conjunction with this reinforcement project, additional improvements are planned for existing facilities that feed this system.  AEP Ohio studies indicate that without this reinforcement plan, the performance of the company’s transmission system will be inadequate to provide the level of service that its customers expect.

            Construction is targeted to begin in spring to summer 2013 and be complete in mid-2014. 

            AEP’s project team is assembling information, including public feedback gathered at the Aug, 18 public information meeting, to include in its application to the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB). The OPSB, a multi-agency board led by the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, is responsible for approving the location of major utility facilities within the state of Ohio.

           Additional information about the project is available on aepohio.com at AEPOhio.com/go/trent.  Interested parties also may request information or comment about the project by calling AEP Ohio’s Transmission Project Information Line at 614-883-6929.        

           AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company in Ohio, and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power.

           American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.