The first thing visitors notice on a brownfield substation site is the hum—the steady 345kV sound that tells you the station is live. Keeping it that way throughout a major rebuild was the central challenge for American Electric Power (AEP) and substation EPC firm Beta Engineering. This 1980s-era 345/138kV substation sits at the heart of the regional power grid, with five 345kV and two 138kV lines running through it. Taking even half the station offline was not an option given ERCOT system operation requirements, so AEP and Beta had to modernize the facility and increase system reliability while keeping everything energized. The project grew even more complex midway through when data center developer Lancium launched a hyperscale project on the adjacent site—with an urgent in-service date that demanded a significant pivot in scope and sequencing. AEP, Beta, and Lancium team members will share the engineering and project management lessons learned from this one-of-a-kind rebuild, including how they managed cutover sequences, navigated missing and outdated drawings, and pivoted a multi-phase project to accommodate one of the largest new loads in the region.

Session Takeaways:
- Actionable engineering strategies for rebuilding a decades-old substation when drawings are missing, incomplete, or outdated
 - Project and construction management lessons for safely executing a critical brownfield rebuild while keeping systems fully energized
 - How AEP pivoted a multi-phase rebuild to accommodate the arrival of a large hyperscale data center load mid-project
 - Practical guidance on managing cutover sequences and outage windows to minimize risk and meet interconnection timelines