Sites offer strong fiber networks, reliable power supply and lower disaster risks

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 28, 2013 – American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has received designations for nine data center sites after a comprehensive review of locations across its 11-state territory. Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co. (BLS), the site selection firm AEP commissioned for the study, determined that AEP’s nine sites offer a reliable and redundant power supply, strong fiber networks, low disaster risks and a business-friendly climate.

“The data center pre-qualification process allowed us to clearly understand the needs of the data center users and distinguish AEP as an electric utility able to support those needs. It gives our service territory an advantage in the highly competitive site selection process for data centers,” said Mark James, vice president of economic and business development for AEP. “BLS helped us objectively evaluate available sites and provided a deliberate, disciplined approach to collecting and presenting the information needed by data center users.”         

AEP’s nine Data Center Qualified Sites are:

• Bradley Square in Bradley, W.Va.
• Cherokee Expressway Industrial Park in Tulsa, Okla.
• Findlay Commerce Park in Findlay, Ohio
• Victoria Site in Victoria, Texas
• Industria Center in Muncie, Ind.
• National Cyber Research Park in Bossier City, La.
• Progress Park in Wytheville, Va.
• Roanoke County Center for Research and Technology in Salem, Va.
• Wolpert Greenfield Site in Hilliard, Ohio

Together with its energy service affiliate, Sugarloaf Associates, BLS designed a three-phase evaluation process that analyzed each site for electric supply and capacity, access to long- and short-haul fiber providers, water availability, electric costs, tax exemptions and incentives, demographics, vendor/supplier networks and the ability to complete construction within 18 months. As an extra step, a third-party engineering company, Intelligent Building Systems (IBS), was hired to model each site’s ability to accommodate a 100,000-square-foot raised-floor data center designed to current industry specifications. 

Information about AEP’s data center qualification program can be found at http://www.aepdatacenters.com/.

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 38,000 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.