CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – AEP Texas completed repairs Friday to a damaged high voltage transmission line that primarily serves the Rio Grande Valley. These critical repairs to a four-mile span of transmission line will relieve potential transmission constraints to the power grid serving the Valley.   
 
Last week, Valley residents and residents south of Corpus Christi were advised that the loss of this transmission line created a potential for a major outage in the Rio Grande Valley if additional transmission failures or generation outages occurred.
 
This situation was monitored around the clock as AEP Texas transmission crews and contractors worked to place the line back in service.
 
Gonzalo Sandoval, director of Transmission Services for AEP, said the restoration effort was hampered by very muddy conditions in rural agricultural fields as storm systems moved through the area. The company planned the repair work around the inclement weather and electrical demand to minimize potential impacts on the transmission grid. 
 
“While there were no outages associated with this situation this past week, we wanted to get the line back in service as quickly and safely as possible to ensure electric reliability,” Sandoval said.

AEP Texas, a unit of American Electric Power, delivers electricity to 900,000 homes, businesses and industries in south and west Texas. AEP Texas provides regulated energy delivery service to consumers, regardless of which Retail Electric Provider they choose. The region headquarters is in Corpus Christi.