American Electric announces five-year, $43B capital investment plan

AEP will invest nearly all capital in its regulated businesses as it simplifies and de-risks operations. The company’s five-year, $43B capital investment plan allocates more than $27B to transmission and distribution. “Our robust capital investment plan includes $16 billion for transmission and $11.3 billion in distribution to continue to modernize the grid, increase reliability, integrate renewable resources and build infrastructure for new customers,” CEO Sloat said. “We have a significant pipeline of opportunities to invest in our wires infrastructure as we upgrade the system to benefit customers and deliver on our 6%-7% EPS growth. In our vertically integrated states, our current integrated resource plans identify a significant need for new generation over the next decade as electrification and economic development contribute to increased load. We’re investing $9.4 billion in regulated renewables over the next five years to support the needs of our customers with fuel-free power. This is part of our plan to add 21.5 gigawatts of new, diverse generation resources between 2024 and 2033. Load projections in most of our service territory remain strong, reinforced by our focus on economic development to bring jobs and growth opportunities to our communities,” Sloat said.