ROANOKE, Va., March 10, 2008 – Appalachian Power is proposing construction of approximately two miles of a new 138 kilovolt (kV) electric transmission line and a new electric substation to meet growing demands for electricity in parts of the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County. The company is asking for public input into the siting process for the new facilities.
          
  “The Sunscape Project will put a new electric source in an area that hasn’t seen a sizable reinforcement to its electric supply since the 1960s,” said Ron Poff, project manager. “Currently we have heavily loaded facilities in the Cave Spring, Wasena and Mudlick areas serving our customers. Constructing a new electric supply near Colonial Avenue and Ogden Road reduces the likelihood of power outages and provides Appalachian Power with electric switching opportunities if outages occur. The Sunscape Project will help us isolate an outage and restore customer service from alternate feeds, dramatically reducing the amount of time customers may be without power.”
 
The preliminary proposed corridors and station sites were developed with publicly available data from local, state and federal sources.   However, public input is critical to finding the best location for this project. Appalachian is asking for public input on the preliminary transmission line corridors and station sites. The company will hold a public information workshop 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at Green Valley Elementary School, 3838 Overdale Road, Roanoke, Va., 24018.
 
After collecting comments from the public, as well as local, state and federal agencies, Appalachian will file an application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission later this year seeking approval to construct the new facilities. The project is planned to be in service in 2010.
Customers can find more information about the Sunscape Project including maps and photos of similar facilities and can provide comments on the project at www.AppalachianPower.com.
 
Appalachian Power has about 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, which delivers electricity to more than 5 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 nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. 
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