AEP는 발전 및 송전 부문 자본 투자 계획을 30% 상향 조정한 1,000억 달러로 확대했다. 계약된 대규모 부하 파이프라인은 22% 증가한 84GW로 늘었으며, 이는 주로 SB Energy가 개발 중인 오하이오주 10.4GW 규모 데이터센터에 기인한다.

American Electric Power increased its five-year capital expenditure plan to $100 billion, up 30% from its previous $78 billion plan, driven by expected generation and transmission spending, company officials said during an earnings call on Wednesday.

The Columbus, Ohio-based utility plans to spend $20 billion on gas-fired generation and $37 billion on transmission through 2031, up from $13 billion and $33 billion, respectively, under its last investment plan, according to company presentations. AEP also expects its utilities to spend $8 billion on renewable energy projects over the next five years.

"Contracted customer demand is growing faster than the operating output of our existing fleet, creating a clear durable need for new baseload dispatchable generation," Trevor Mihalik, AEP executive vice president and CFO, said on the earnings call.

The updated plan also raises the company's expected compound rate base growth over the next five years to 13%, up from 11% under the previous spending plan. Contracted load is expected to reach 84 GW through 2031, up 22% from 69 GW in the previous quarter. AEP's utilities currently have 14.4 GW of active requests for generation.

During the call, William Fehrman, AEP chairman, president and CEO, highlighted a roughly $5 billion, 765-kV transmission project in Ohio and a $4 billion fuel cell project in Wyoming as examples of the company's investment opportunities. Both projects are included in AEP's updated capital spending plan.

"Construction is well underway on the Wyoming fuel cell project, which is underpinned by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google," Fehrman said.

AEP plans to use Bloom Energy fuel cells for the 702-MW project, which it expects to bring online in 2028.

In Ohio, AEP expects to start building the Piketon transmission project early next year to support a 10.4-GW data center campus planned by SB Energy, Fehrman said. That data center was the biggest driver of AEP's increase in contracted load in the third quarter, according to Mihalik.

The project's three 765-kV transmission lines will each provide about 3.2 GW of capacity to the data center complex and have targeted in-service dates of Dec. 31, 2028, 2029 and 2030, AEP said in its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The data center's initial 800 MW of load is expected to be served with existing transmission capacity and does not require additional regulatory approvals, the company said.

SoftBank and its affiliates will pay for the transmission project, which carries an 11.35% base return on equity. That return may rise to 11.99% or fall to 10.71%, depending on final project costs and in-service dates. The project requires approvals from the PJM Interconnection, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, AEP noted.

Meanwhile, AEP's utilities are preparing to add about 9 GW of gas-fired generation through 2032, according to the company's presentation.

AEP is continuing to consider creating "gencos," or generating companies, to serve large loads. "Should a genco structure emerge as a viable pathway in any given state, particularly West Virginia and Indiana, we could ultimately look to house a portion of the plan or future gas plants in that framework," Fehrman said.

AEP's total retail electric sales increased 11% in the third quarter and 8.7% in the first nine months of this year, mainly driven by data center development, the company said in its SEC filing.

Net income rose to $1.2 billion on $6.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter, up from $972 million on $6 billion in the year-ago period, driven by data center sales and warmer weather, according to the filing.

AEP's utilities serve about 5.6 million customers in Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.