AEP contributes $1M to Columbus customers impacted by power outages
AEP announced Friday that the company will contribute $1 million to assist Greater Columbus residents who were financially impacted by power outages last week.
The company is partnering with local organizations such as the Columbus Urban League and IMPACT Community Action. Life Care Alliance and the Mid-ohio Food Collective for the initiative.
“This week, extreme storms, followed by extremely hot weather resulted in a unique situation where power outages throughout Columbus had to be taken to prevent wider spread outages, which created challenges for many Franklin County residents,” the company said in a statement.
AEP said the $1 million will be funded through the AEP Ohio Fund of the Columbus Foundation and “will be used to help relieve financial burdens these residents experienced as a result of this highly unique event.”
People can also seek assistance through AEP’S Neighbor to Neighbor Program and Franklin County Job and
Family Service’s Food Assistance Program.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients who experienced food spoilage during the power outages may be eligible for replacement benefits, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in a news release.
Households that lost food purchased with SNAP benefits due to a power outage of four hours or more can apply to receive replacement SNAP benefits for the amount of food the household lost. However, the amount should not exceed their monthly allotment. Replacement SNAP benefits will be added to recipients’ Ohio Direction Card, said the agency.
Ryan Augsburger, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, is among those calling for an investigation of AEP’S actions.
“Customers deserve to know the cause for the outages, as well as steps that could have been taken to prevent intentional load shedding,” he said. “Customers also deserve insight into how billions of dollars of ratepayer funds have been spent to improve grid resiliency so we can be assured the system is working properly.”
The Columbus branch of the NAACP said it had questions about the decisions to shut off power in certain areas but not others. The organization held a news conference encouraging AEP to explain its process for the intentional shutoffs.
“The majority of areas without electric were in the urban community, which is indication there may be some biases,” the NAACP said in a news release.
The organization has requested AEP to answer questions about the outages, such as the selection of neighborhoods where power was turned off and did the company notify residents, government and social services agencies in Franklin County about the outages beforehand.
“The NAACP’S concern is that these outages will add to the list of health, environmental, and crimes rates in these communities,” the organization said.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 230,000 AEP Ohio customers were without power after intentional outages were conducted to protect the power grid, including outages affecting more than 169,000 in the Columbus area.
The outages were a result of powerful storms Monday night into Tuesday that toppled AEP transmission lines.
The day after the storms, multiple additional transmission lines in the AEP service area tripped out of service, according to PJM Interconnection, which oversees the flow of electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, including all of Ohio.
This caused surrounding lines to overload beyond safe levels. To prevent damage to equipment and the risk of cascading outages across a broader area, PJM directed AEP to lower flows across the overloaded lines by reducing load.
“Our regional grid has enough power to serve all customers, even during this heat-wave,” PJM said. “The reason for most of the current outages is that there is not enough transmission capacity in service to get that power to every customer. AEP is working hard to restore these transmission lines. As soon as the lines are restored, PJM will coordinate their return to the grid.”
Clark County; CULTICE, Charles