Gahanna, Ohio (Tuesday, October 30, 2007) – American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) operating unit AEP Ohio today joined several organizations in encouraging its customers to support renewable energy by participating in the company’s Green Pricing Option program. The announcement took place today during a kickoff event at the Athletic Club of Columbus, 136 E. Broad St., Columbus.

Participants in the event included: Kevin E. Walker, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer; Public Utilities Commission of Ohio commissioners Paul A. Centollela, Ronda Hartman Fergus and Donald L. Mason, Esq.; Janine Migden-Ostrander, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel; and State Representative Jim McGregor (R-Gahanna), chairman of the House Alternative Energy Committee.

The public officials, all of whom reside in the AEP Ohio service territory, explained their participation in the program and encouraged the company’s customers to take part.

“We are pleased to make this opportunity available to our customers,” said Kevin Walker, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer. “Participation in the program helps to support the generation of renewable energy throughout our region.”

AEP Ohio recently acquired more than 50,000 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and rebundled them into Green Product blocks. Each block costs $0.70 and is equivalent to 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable electricity. Customers must agree to purchase at least two blocks of the Green Product. Customers may participate through a one-time purchase, or establish an automatic monthly purchase agreement.

“For just a minimum of $1.40 per month, customers can support the Green Pricing Option,” explained Walker. “And for $7.00 per month, the Green Product monthly purchase represents 100 percent of the average residential customer´s monthly usage (approximately 1,000 kWh).”

Customers can enroll in the program beginning today by calling the company’s Customer Solutions Center (24 hours a day, seven days a week) at 1-800-277-2177 or by signing up online.

“We are proud participants of this program and we encourage customers of AEP Ohio to take the opportunity to support the investment in renewable energy sources,” PUCO Commissioners Paul A. Centolella, Ronda Hartman Fergus and Donald L. Mason stated. “The AEP Ohio Green Pricing Option provides a great opportunity to invest in renewable energy resources through the purchase of renewable energy certificates. As we look to our energy future and Gov. Ted Strickland’s energy plan, programs like this will encourage innovation in the retail electric market.”

"This is a great opportunity for consumers to support the use of renewable energy by investing in AEP Ohio’s Green Pricing Option," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, Ohio Consumers´ Counsel. "The development of green energy options will provide Ohioans with more energy choices and will help keep electricity affordable in the future."

When customers purchase the Green Product blocks, they are supporting AEP Ohio’s acquisition of RECs. Their purchase will take place in addition to their regular monthly electric bill. They will not receive any additional electricity from their purchase of the Green Product; however, they are helping to sustain a market for the environmental attributes of renewable power generation.

Renewable energy generators—for example, wind power generators-- create a REC when they produce one megawatt hour of electricity that is certified and sold into the electricity market. The REC, a tradable instrument, represents the environmental attributes of renewable generation, such as avoided emissions that are experienced when electricity is generated from fossil fuels. That REC is then sold to a buyer, such as an individual or an organization.

The RECs purchased by AEP Ohio are created by an organization using landfill gas (methane) to produce electricity.

AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company in Ohio, and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.