Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s parent firm, American Electric Power, was among eight U.S. utilities that received $22.4 billion in loans from the Biden administration for transmission line expansion projects.
AEP’s $1.6 billion conditional loan was considered to be the last probable act for an Inflation Reduction Act program.
The conditional loans, according to the Energy Department’s announcement, were aimed at cutting carbon emissions and energy bills by helping build and retrofit power plants and bolster the grid.
Those projects will include building or retrofitting hundreds of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines, repairing fossil gas pipelines, and deploying new renewable energy, battery storage, and customer- sited energy assets.
AEP’s loan guarantee is intended to help the transmission utility finance reconductoring or rebuilding of almost 5,000 miles of transmission lines in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The transmission upgrades will increase overall transmission capacity by approximately 70%, officials predicted. Upgrading transmission lines would provide cost savings to utility customers and improve service reliability.
The initial projects funded by the proposed loan guarantee involve upgrading approximately 100 miles of transmission lines in Oklahoma and Ohio.
The U.S. Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office estimates these initial projects, as well as future projects to be funded by the loan guarantee, will avoid greenhouse gas emissions by reducing line losses associated with electricity transmission. Additionally, AEP’s projects would contribute to emissions reductions by supporting existing and new clean generation by expanding transmission capacity in the regions in which they operate.