American Electric Power raised its five-year capital spending plan by 30% to $100 billion, up from $78 billion, citing contracted data center demand, according to Utility Dive's coverage of the company's third-quarter earnings call on October 28.
AEP's contracted load through 2031 now totals 84 GW, a 22% increase from 69 GW a quarter earlier, and its utilities hold 14.4 GW of active generation requests. The company expects to add about 9 GW of gas-fired generation through 2032. Gas generation spending through 2031 rises to $20 billion from $13 billion, and transmission spending rises to $37 billion from $33 billion. AEP utilities also expect to spend $8 billion on renewables over the next five years. The company is weighing separate generating companies for large loads, particularly in West Virginia and Indiana.
Two projects stand out. In Wyoming, a roughly $4 billion, 702-MW Bloom Energy fuel cell project is expected online in 2028 and is backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google. In Ohio, about $5 billion in 765-kV transmission lines would serve a 10.4-GW SB Energy data center campus at Piketon. Three lines of roughly 3.2 GW each carry target in-service dates of December 31 in 2028, 2029 and 2030, and the initial 800 MW of load can be served by existing capacity. SoftBank affiliates are to pay for the project, which needs approvals from PJM, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and FERC.
Third-quarter net income rose to $1.2 billion on $6.8 billion in revenue, compared with $972 million and $6 billion a year earlier. Retail electric sales climbed 11% in the quarter, driven mainly by data centers. AEP is based in Columbus, Ohio, and serves about 5.6 million customers in 11 states.
Source: Utility Dive -- https://www.utilitydive.com/news/aep-transmission-data-center-earnings/873189/