COLUMBUS, Ohio, and DENVER, Jan. 4, 1999 -- Yorkshire Electricity Group, a regional electricity company in the United Kingdom jointly owned by American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) and New Century Energies (NYSE: NCE), has sold Yorkshire CoGen Limited to PowerGen plc (NYSE: PWG).

PowerGen is an international power company based in Britain.

The transaction included 232 megawatts of generation either operational, under construction or contracted. It is part of Yorkshire´s larger strategy to reduce debt by divesting generation assets. In November, Yorkshire completed the sale of its 75 percent share and loan interests in Regional Power Generators Limited (RPG) to IVO Energy Limited.

Yorkshire Electricity has focused its main businesses on the distribution and supply of electricity and the supply of gas. It has two million customers in its existing area surrounding its main office in Leeds and many large gas and electricity customers elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

New Century Energies was formed by the 1997 merger of Public Service Co. of Colorado and Southwestern Public Service Company. It serves approximately 1.6 million electric customers and more than a million natural gas customers in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. The Denver-based holding company has operating revenues of more than $3.3 billion. Through its subsidiaries, it provides a full range of energy expertise including the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, natural gas distribution, energy trading and marketing, engineering services and non-utility generation projects.

AEP, a global energy company, is one of the United States’ largest investor-owned utilities, providing energy to 3 million customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. AEP has holdings in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia. Wholly owned subsidiaries provide power engineering, energy consulting and energy management services around the world. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. On Dec. 22, 1997, AEP announced a definitive merger agreement for a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction with Central and South West Corp., a public utility holding company based in Dallas.