“This new double circuit Atlanta to Fayette 345 kV transmission line will introduce an additional source into the Jeffersonville area,” the company said in an advertisement published in the Dec. 22 editions of the Dayton Daily News.
The proposal is an attempt to meet growing electric service demand in a growing area, AES Ohio says.
In an era of data center and electric vehicle proliferation, as power demand grows and older, fossil-fuel-based power sources are retired, making sure the region has enough power is only going to get harder, an executive with PJM Interconnection, the Midwest’s electric grid operator, told the Dayton Daily News this summer.
“These facilities will facilitate operational flexibility for preventative maintenance on other transmission lines and transmission substation equipment in the region,” AES Ohio said about the new transmission line.
“Load growth” in the growing region is making the project necessary, the utility also said.
In the fall of 2024, AES Ohio opened an electric service substation meant to serve the new joint venture Honda Electric Vehicle battery plant, among other businesses in the area.
Honda and LG Energy Solution have been building a $4.4 billion plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles about an hour’s drive southeast of Dayton.
That was the utility’s largest substation, the company said at the time.
“AES Ohio is investing in network enhancements driven by large customer projects in the area,” an attorney for AES Ohio wrote in a letter to the Ohio Power Siting Board last month. “The latest load requests necessitate significant additional transmission support by 2031. These network enhancements will serve the new load as well as provide increased capacity, flexibility, and resiliency to the entire southeast region of the AES Ohio service territory.”
The project involves building some 30 miles of new single circuit 345 kV transmission line connecting the Clinton substation in Wilmington to Fayette substation in Jeffersonville, the business said in the letter dated Nov. 7.
AES Ohio anticipates construction starting in the fourth quarter of 2028, with electric service starting during the first quarter of 2030.
The project was filed before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as case No. 25-0871-EL-BLN.
About the Author
