OREANDA-NEWS. American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has received designations for nine data center sites after a comprehensive review of locations across its 11-state territory. Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co. (BLS), the site selection firm AEP commissioned for the study, determined that AEP's nine sites offer a reliable and redundant power supply, strong fiber networks, low disaster risks and a business-friendly climate.

“The data center pre-qualification process allowed us to clearly understand the needs of the data center users and distinguish AEP as an electric utility able to support those needs. It gives our service territory an advantage in the highly competitive site selection process for data centers,” said Mark James, vice president of economic and business development for AEP. “BLS helped us objectively evaluate available sites and provided a deliberate, disciplined approach to collecting and presenting the information needed by data center users.”

AEP's nine Data Center Qualified Sites are:

Bradley Square in Bradley, W.Va.

Cherokee Expressway Industrial Park in Tulsa, Okla.

Findlay Commerce Park in Findlay, Ohio

Victoria Site in Victoria, Texas

Industria Center in Muncie, Ind.

National Cyber Research Park in Bossier City, La.

Progress Park in Wytheville, Va.

Roanoke County Center for Research and Technology in Salem, Va.

Wolpert Greenfield Site in Hilliard, Ohio

Together with its energy service affiliate, Sugarloaf Associates, BLS designed a three-phase evaluation process that analyzed each site for electric supply and capacity, access to long- and short-haul fiber providers, water availability, electric costs, tax exemptions and incentives, demographics, vendor/supplier networks and the ability to complete construction within 18 months. As an extra step, a third-party engineering company, Intelligent Building Systems (IBS), was hired to model each site's ability to accommodate a 100,000-square-foot raised-floor data center designed to current industry specifications.