News release from Indiana Michigan Power:
I&M announces line route for Melita Reliability Enhancement Project
(January 11, 2016) – Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), an operating unit of American Electric Power, is announcing the final line route for an approximately $50 million improvement project southwest of downtown Fort Wayne. I&M has selected a variation of the northern route as the preferred location of the new approximately 2-mile 69 kV transmission line for the Melita Reliability Enhancement Project.
This route connects the new Melita Substation, located north of Melita Street and west of South Harrison Street, to the existing Hadley-McKinley transmission circuit. A majority of the line will be constructed along the Norfolk & Southern and CSX railroad tracks, located south of Jefferson Boulevard. This announcement follows a comprehensive routing study, an open house held on Oct. 22 and an analysis of public comments.
Key project components include replacing the Webster Substation with a new Melita Substation, along with adding and/or upgrading distribution and transmission lines to the new substation. The existing Webster Substation, a key part of the downtown electric network, has been in service since the 1920s and must be replaced due to aging infrastructure and to adhere to updated standards. I&M worked with a community advisory panel that included representatives of the neighborhood and the city to develop plans for aesthetics surrounding the substation.
Together, these enhancements will strengthen the electric transmission infrastructure, increase reliability, meet current safety standards and ensure an adequate supply of electricity is available for Fort Wayne’s economic development.
Additional information about the project, including a map, of the final line route can be found at
www.IndianaMichiganPower.com.
About Indiana Michigan Power
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 and, by the end of 2016, approximately 15 MW of utility-scale solar generation.American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to nearly 5.4 million customers through 223,000 miles of distribution lines in 11 states. AEP 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 also ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning approximately 32,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. 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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