COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 16, 2016 — AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), awarded Ohio’s first AEP Quality Site Certification to Zahns Corner Industrial Park. This industrial park, located in Pike County, has passed a rigorous and thorough analysis and has met all certification criteria, including utility availability, ease to transportation routes and environmental considerations. This certified designation ensures potential businesses that the location is development-ready.
With this designation, Zahns Corner Industrial Park is positioned to attract industries such as fabricated metals, general machinery, light industrial and assembly.
Nationally recognized site consultant firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting conducted the third-party site certification. The consulting firm evaluates properties, determines documentation that must be completed, and then certifies the sites once they have met all the program requirements. The process, which includes obtaining engineering plans, environmental studies, and researching site characteristics, can take up to two years and results in certification, which means the industrial site is ready for development.
“The demand for project ready industrial sites continues to grow as decision-making timeframes for companies continue to shrink,” Lindsey Myers, Director of Site Readiness Programs at McCallum Sweeney Consulting, said. “Certification minimizes risk factors for corporate location decisions, can lower costs and allows for quicker start-up and operation.”
“AEP Ohio is proud to be a strong partner to the communities that we serve,” said Tim Wells, Manager, Economic and Business Development. “By working with businesses and chambers in our local communities to certify sites and help businesses quickly get their business up and running, we are helping communities flourish by attracting new jobs, maintain existing jobs.
“We are thrilled to receive the certification. All the hard work by so many has helped get us to this point and now we’re able to bring much needed jobs to an area of hard working individuals,” Steve Shepherd, Executive Director of Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI).
To learn more about the Quality Site Certification program, visit www.aeped.com.
AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiary Ohio Power Company in Ohio. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power. News and information about AEP Ohio can be found at AEPOhio.com.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5.3 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 32,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.
News from AEP Ohio | March 16, 2016
