COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 26, 1999 – American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP) today reported net income for the third quarter of 1999 of $174 million, or 90 cents per share, compared with $195.4 million, or $1.02 per share in 1998.

For the year-to-date period, earnings were $412.9 million, or $2.14 per share, compared with $464 million, or $2.44 per share, for 1998.
Net income for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 was $485.1 million, or $2.52 a share, compared with $590.1 million, or $3.10 a share, for the same period a year earlier after a 1997 extraordinary item.

"Earnings for the third quarter were negatively affected by the continued outage of our Cook Nuclear Plant and a reduction in wholesale power margins," said E. Linn Draper Jr., AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer. "A favorable development for the quarter was a reduction in operation and maintenance expenses excluding those made to restart Cook plant."
The extended outage of the Cook Nuclear Plant began in September 1997 when both generating units were shut down because of questions regarding the operability of certain safety systems. Under the company´s restart plan Unit 2 is scheduled to return to service in April 2000 and Unit 1 is to return to service in September 2000. Earnings per share for the quarter were reduced by 19 cents from the restart efforts net of deferrals under an Indiana settlement agreement and by 11 cents from the reduction in wholesale margins. The reduction of non-nuclear operation and maintenance expenses added 12 cents to earnings for the third quarter.

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.

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