I&M Hosts Informational Open House

June 24, 2015

Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), an operating unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is moving forward with Powering Up South: Lincoln-Decatur, an important reliability enhancement project to upgrade the aging electric backbone serving areas of Adams and Allen counties.

Powering Up South improvements include upgrading approximately 17 miles of existing 34.5 kilovolt (kV) transmission line to a more efficient 69 kV line and replacing old, wooden structures with modern steel poles. The project will also add 3 miles of new transmission line along County Road 1100 N and two new substations. The project, originally announced in February 2014 as part of Powering Up Northeast Indiana, will provide additional capacity and strengthen the local electric transmission grid to accommodate future growth and economic development in the southern Fort Wayne area.

One of the two future substations sites is located in Decatur. The site for the Yost Bridge Substation is near U.S. 27 and Winchester Road. It’s currently being used as a temporary storage area, also called a lay-down yard, for project construction. Construction on the Yost Bridge Substation is estimated to begin in 2017.

I&M has been working with landowners along the route in southern Allen and northern Adams counties for the past several months. Now, I&M is reaching out to landowners on the north side of Decatur to discuss plans to rebuild the line from the north side of the city to the substation near I&M’s Service Center off Dayton Street.

I&M will host a public open house to gather valuable information to be used in the siting process. The open house is scheduled for Tuesday, July 7, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Riverside Center, 231 E. Monroe St. in Decatur.

Visitors can arrive at any time during the open house to learn about project details, view maps of the potential route and speak with members of the project team. The information gathered will be used in the siting process.

 Additional information about the project, including a project timeline, maps and continuous updates can be found at www.AEPtransmission.com/Indiana/PoweringUpSouth.

#   #   #

Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) is headquartered in Fort Wayne, and its 2,450 employees serve more than 589,000 customers. It operates 2,600 MW of coal-fired generation in Indiana, 2,160 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.

#   #   #

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5.3 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 32,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a 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.