Feb. 12, 2015

FORT WAYNE – After communicating with affected landowners and the public, Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), an operating unit of American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP), has determined the final line route for Powering Up Central: City of Fort Wayne, a key transmission project designed to enhance reliability and help serve the city’s economic development.

During route selection, I&M received comments and suggestions from the community that were incorporated into selecting the route. This included working with the City of Fort Wayne and other major stakeholders along the project to identify the best route, accommodating a planned expansion at Memorial Coliseum, minimizing tree clearing along the St. Joseph River, and minimizing potential impacts to Johnny Appleseed Park as well as the RiverGreenway.

The key component of Powering Up Central is rebuilding an existing transmission line from Spy Run substation (Spy Run Avenue near State Boulevard) to the Robison Park substation (located off North Clinton Street near I-469), a distance of about 6.5 miles. The existing 34.5 kiloVolt (kV) transmission line will be replaced by a more efficient 138 kV line to enhance reliability. Steel lattice towers along the route will be replaced with modern single pole structures.

Powering Up Central is one phase of the Powering Up Northeast Indiana transmission program announced by I&M in February 2014. I&M has openly communicated with landowners who have existing easements along the line route. Utility representatives have also met with public officials and community stakeholders to discuss ways to lessen impacts of the project. I&M hosted an open house in November 2014 to provide detailed information to the public and to solicit public comment prior to determining the final route

Additional project details, updates, a Virtual Open House and final route selection can be found at: www.aeptransmission.com/indiana/PoweringUpCentral/

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Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) is headquartered in Fort Wayne, and its 2,500 employees serve more than 582,000 customers. It operates 3,595 MW of coal-fired generation in Indiana, 2,110 MW of nuclear generation in Michigan and 22 MW of hydro generation in both states.  The company also provides its customers 450 MW of purchased wind generation.

I&M is a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), 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 more than 40,000-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.

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News releases and other information about I&M are available at IndianaMichiganPower.com