AEP To Build $3 Billion Interstate Transmission Line

American Electric Power today announced plans to build a $3 billion, 550-mile transmission line from its John Amos Power Plant near Winfield, W.Va., to New Jersey. AEP officials say the new line will "reduce congestion costs, cut line losses, enhance reliability and provide the transmission capacity and flexibility that is critical for construction of new fuel-diverse generation, including renewables."

AEP will file the project proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today and will eventually file with the West Virginia Public Service Commission as well as regulators in all of the other states where the line would pass. The company said it has named the proposed 765-kilovolt line project the "AEP Interstate Project." It would begin at the John Amos Plant, connect through Doubs Station in Frederick County, Md., and terminate in the Deans Station in Middlesex County, N.J.

The company's target date for putting the line in service is 2014. American Electric Power said that date assumes it will take three years to acquire necessary approvals, determine the route and rights-of-way and five years for construction.