AEP Ohio filed notice this week with the Ohio Power Siting Board for a new 345-kilovolt substation and a cluster of transmission lines in Licking County, serving a large customer development near New Albany. The filing is in two parts:
- Case No. 26-0351-EL-BLN — Letter of Notification for Curleys 345 kV Station, to be built at the intersection of Johnstown Utica Road and Tippet Road. - Case No. 26-0352-EL-BNR — Construction Notification for four transmission lines cutting in from the existing Conesville-Corridor 345 kV line and two double-circuit tie lines from Curleys Station to the customer's facility.
This is a permanent buildout on top of an earlier temporary filing (Case No. 26-0171-EL-BLN), a 138-kV temporary line AEP filed to support the customer's early construction phase. The company expects to begin construction this summer and conclude in early 2027.
Under Rule 4906-2-12 of the Ohio Administrative Code, motions to intervene are due within ten days following the publication date of the newspaper notice. The notice ran in the Newark Advocate on Monday, April 20, 2026. Under Ohio's standard rules for computing administrative time, the day of publication is not counted and the clock runs from the following day — which places the intervention deadline at Thursday, April 30, 2026. Residents with more direct information on their standing or on a specific parcel should still confirm the date against the printed legal notice in the paper.
The project sits inside the New Albany data center corridor — the same territory Intel, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft campuses have been quietly consolidating for several years. AEP's filing does not name the customer, which is standard for OPSB notices at this stage, but the scale (a dedicated 345-kV substation with four cut-ins and two double-circuit tie lines) signals a hyperscale-class load.
## Who Is “Affected"?
OPSB has generally granted intervention to property owners along or near the proposed corridor, local governments whose jurisdictions the infrastructure crosses, schools and institutions with operational concerns, and civic or environmental organizations with demonstrated interest in the affected area. That covers most residents in Jersey Township and the relevant parts of New Albany, and any property owner along the Conesville corridor cut-ins.
AEP Ohio ratepayers outside the immediate project area have weaker standing at the OPSB — the siting board's jurisdiction is where infrastructure goes, not how much customers pay for it. Rate-impact questions land at the PUCO in the cost-recovery case that follows construction. Ratepayer advocacy groups (including the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel) have occasionally intervened at OPSB when siting decisions have clear cost-recovery consequences, but an individual ratepayer with no geographic tie to the project is a longer shot.