As regulated utilities, Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) and Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) have an obligation to serve the customers in our service territories to the best of our ability. Our customers' needs here in Kentucky are growing dramatically and we are faced with the need to have additional electricity by 2010 to keep pace with customer demand.

After nearly three years of comprehensive studies, we have determined that building additional base load electric generation at the Trimble County site is the least cost method to meet our customers' needs. The proposed generation addition is a 750 MW super-critical, coal-fired unit with world-class environmental controls. It will be the cleanest and most efficient coal-fired unit in Kentucky.

In order to allow the electricity generated at the expanded plant in Trimble County to reach our customers on a reliable system, we plan to construct three additional transmission lines. This plan helps us to address our electricity needs for the foreseeable future and to do it cost-effectively, while using existing transmission lines and rights-of-way wherever practical.

One of the three lines will run approximately 2.5 miles from the Trimble County Generating Station across the Ohio River, where it will connect with an existing transmission line near Marble Hill, Indiana. A second line will run approximately 12.7 miles from the West Frankfort substation in Franklin County to the Tyrone substation in Woodford County. A third line will run approximately 43.8 miles from the Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County to the Hardin County substation in Hardin County.

The entire transmission project is estimated to cost approximately $51.2 million. The project is planned to include the line from Franklin County to Woodford County, which we estimate will cost $4.5 million; the line from Jefferson County to Hardin County, which we estimate will cost $39.5 million; and the line from Trimble County across the Ohio River into Indiana, which we estimate will cost $7.2 million.