ITC Great Plains Announces Route Selection for its Hugo-to-Valliant High-Voltage Transmission Line in Oklahoma

TOPEKA, Kan., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ITC Great Plains, LLC has completed route selection for its Hugo-to-Valliant high-voltage electric transmission line project.  As part of ongoing community outreach efforts, ITC representatives are working with affected landowners along the route to complete survey work.

Prior to route selection, ITC Great Plains met with community leaders and local officials to discuss the benefits of the project and request their support.  The 19-mile Hugo-to-Valliant 345,000 volt (345kV) line is part of a larger transmission line project being implemented in southeastern Oklahoma to reduce system congestion, provide more efficient and cost-effective transmission of energy and increase access to a broader range of generation resources.

ITC conducted a preliminary route study and developed three potential corridors through portions of Choctaw and McCurtain counties.  In an effort to seek community input, ITC presented the routes to landowners and community representatives at open house events in Fort Towson on December 7 and Valliant on December 8.

During and following those events, ITC received input from more than 70 landowners and other interested parties regarding the potential routes.  Those comments were taken into consideration during development of the final route, which is designed to minimize impacts to residents, their land and the natural environment while providing a technically viable and cost-effective transmission line.

"We have worked very closely with state and local officials, community and business leaders, landowners and other interested parties during the development our first project as a new utility in Oklahoma," said Carl Huslig, president of ITC Great Plains.  "The support and feedback we've received has been very helpful in guiding our design efforts.  The result is a new route that combines elements of the initial routes with some redirection intended to minimize the impacts of the line on residents and their properties."

Following completion of survey work, ITC representatives will finalize right-of-way easements with affected property owners.  The line will run from a new substation that ITC will build near the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative Hugo Power Plant west of Fort Towson to an existing substation southeast of Valliant.  Construction is projected to begin during the second quarter of 2011.  The project is scheduled to enter service by the end of March 2012.

About ITC Great Plains

ITC Great Plains, LLC was formed in July 2006 as a subsidiary of ITC Grid Development, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC), the nation's only fully independent electric transmission company.  Headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, ITC Great Plains is a transmission-only utility which seeks to build a more robust electric transmission system providing access to reliable, non-discriminatory, competitive and low-cost energy throughout the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) region.  ITC Great Plains holds transmission-only utility status in Kansas and Oklahoma with the authority to construct, own, operate, and maintain a regulated, high-voltage transmission system.  For more information, please visit http://www.itctransco.com.

About ITC Holdings Corp.

ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) invests in the electricity transmission grid to improve electric reliability, improve access to markets, and lower the overall cost of delivered energy.  ITC is the largest independent electricity transmission company in the country.  Through its subsidiaries, International Transmission Company d/b/a ITCTransmission, Michigan Electric Transmission Company, LLC (METC) and ITC Midwest LLC, ITC operates contiguous, regulated, high-voltage transmission systems in Michigan's Lower Peninsula and portions of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri, serving a combined peak load in excess of 25,000 megawatts.  ITC is also focused on new areas where significant transmission system improvements are needed through subsidiaries ITC Grid Development, LLC, ITC Great Plains, LLC and ITC Panhandle Transmission, LLC.  For more information, please visit: http://www.itc-holdings.com. (itc-ITC)

SOURCE ITC Holdings Corp.