Nearly all AEP customers in Knox County have power restored

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (WCMH) -- AEP has restored power to most of its Knox County customers after a transmission line malfunction Wednesday knocked it out to thousands.

Between Knox and Licking County, close to 20,000 customers were without power as of early Wednesday evening. By 11 p.m., however, AEP was reporting only 12 customers were still without power in Knox County, and there were eight customers without it in Licking County.

The outage -- largely affecting AEP Ohio customers -- was due to transmission lines coming into contact with trees, according to a statement from the power provider. AEP's outage map listed at least 20 outage cases in the Mt. Vernon area around 6:20 p.m., and the statement said 14 substations were affected.

"We are investigating a transmission-related power outage affecting substations that feed homes and businesses in the area," AEP's statement read.

It also affected about 10,000 customers of the Energy Cooperative in Knox and Licking County as of 4 p.m., with seven substations fed by AEP transmission lines down, according to a Twitter statement. As of 10 p.m., all Energy Cooperative customers had their power restored.

View AEP's outage map for live updates around central Ohio below. The Energy Cooperative's outage map is available here.