What happens when a data center arrives next door partway through a substation rebuild? AEP, Lancium, and Beta Engineering are taking the stage at T&D World Live to discuss just that.
The first thing visitors notice on a 345/138kV brownfield substation site is the sound: the steady 345kV hum that tells them the station is hot. And that was the first challenge—keeping this 1980s station online throughout the quality-of-life rebuild American Electric Power (AEP) needed to complete.
As the heart of the region’s power grid, this substation has five 345kV and two 138kV lines running through it. That meant taking even half the station offline was not an option for AEP to maintain ERCOT system operation requirements.
AEP teamed up with substation EPC firm Beta Engineering on this complex upgrade. Together, they modernized the station and increased system reliability. Ultimately, the project supported grid expansion, providing capacity just in time for a demand that emerged partway through the rebuild when data center developer Lancium launched a hyperscale project next door.
During this talk, AEP, Beta, and Lancium team members will share engineering and project management lessons learned that other utilities and developers can apply to their own station rebuilds and data center interconnections. They’ll also provide insights into how to pivot when a data center arrives with an urgent in-service date after a rebuild is already underway.
Utility Decision-Makers, Program/Project Development, Project Managers, Utility Engineers, Electrical Engineers
Forrest Farson is a Transmission Project Manager on the EPC team at American Electric Power. He holds a bachelor’s degree in construction management from The Ohio State University. He has been in his current role for about six years, managing projects across the ERCOT and SPP footprint.
Espen Johansen is a Sr. Project Director with Lancium. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from NKI University in Oslo, Norway. He has worked for Lancium for four years, where he is responsible for the development of their clean campus in Abilene, TX, which hosts Stargate’s 1200MW AI data center development. Prior to working for Lancium, he worked 25 years in upstream offshore and midstream oil and gas.
Kyle Kight is a Project Manager at Beta Engineering. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering at Louisiana Tech University and has more than 11 years of civil engineering and project management experience, with four years of experience in the high-voltage EPC project space.
Daniel Chatelain is an Electrical Engineer at Beta Engineering. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Louisiana and Texas. He has been involved in the design of high-voltage utility substation and switchyard projects for eight years.
We look forward to seeing you there! Contact us below to schedule a meeting during the show or outside of exhibit hall hours.
