Project Overview

Laurel Creek Energy Storage (Laurel Creek) is ideally located on roughly 20 acres of land in Saltville, Virginia, where it will interconnect near critical transmission infrastructure, adjacent to the 138kV Broadford Substation. The Broadford Substation is an extremely critical substation for the Virginia utility grid, housing multiple different high voltages while also directly feeding substations around Smyth County. The Laurel Creek Energy Storage facility would add up to 250 megawatts of reliable energy to the region with no adverse environmental impacts. Moreover, the battery will participate in the marketplace as a “merchant project,” competing with all other generation sources to provide the lowest cost for ratepayers. 

The facility’s position near high electricity demand in the region, as well as its flexibility to perform additional grid services, can help integrate renewable energy and increase energy efficiency for Smyth County and the overall transmission grid. Modernizing the grid to improve resilience also improves quality of life and regional economic development, enhancing prosperity for the community and Virginia. The 2029 completion of the Laurel Creek Energy Storage project will help meet AEP’s reliability needs, as well as Virginia’s goal to reach 3,100 MW of energy storage by 2032. 

Proposed Site Layout