AEP Texas will implement a three-year resiliency plan to harden its distribution infrastructure, complete targeted tree trimming and vegetation management work and introduce technologies that will provide better situational awareness to assist in the prevention and mitigation of wildfires.
The purpose of the system resiliency plan is to reduce the duration of outages and lower the restoration costs of future storm events. Approximately 80 percent of the resiliency plan involves replacing aging assets with newer equipment that is designed to a higher standard that can better withstand forces from extreme weather events.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) approved the unopposed settlement AEP Texas reached with parties at the April 24 open meeting.
The plan includes approximately $318 million of investments over the next three years for a broad set of projects that will prevent approximately 1.3 billion minutes of customer interruptions and save about $71 million in projected restoration costs over the life of these projects.
AEP Texas operates as one of the fastest growing transmission & distribution utility companies in Texas. Its service territory extends from the Texas panhandle in the north to the Rio Grande Valley in the south, and from Bay City in the east to Presidio in the west. The AEP Texas service territory has the largest coastal exposure of any Texas utility, and is exposed to a number of extreme weather events including hurricanes, wildfires, icing events, wind events, flooding, tornadoes, tropical storms, etc.