Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) has completed a nearly $1 million project to add to and upgrade the electric distribution system serving Idabel and the surrounding area.

The work performed included the building of three miles of new distribution line from Highway 259 to Highway 70. An additional ¼ mile of line was re-built from the new line to the Idabel substation. In effect, the new lines now provide a second feed into the Idabel substation, which gives PSO the ability to switch between the feeds should one of them go down during a storm or for any other reason.

The new line, which was energized in March, has already been used to isolate small outages and restore power to customers in Idabel while repairs were still underway.

"This is a significant project for this area as it basically doubles PSO’s power supply capabilities to Idabel," said Harolynn Wofford, PSO Community Affairs manager. "We now have more flexibility in our system, and with that our overall reliability is greatly enhanced."

PSO, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is an electric utility company serving more than 530,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. With headquarters in Tulsa, PSO has 4,308 megawatts of generating capacity and provides electricity to 230 cities and towns across a service area encompassing 30,000 square miles. News releases and other information about PSO can be found on the World Wide Web at PSOklahoma.com.