LANCASTER, Ohio, March 23, 1998 -- American Electric Power's (AEP) Transportation Services Group today announced it has reached an agreement with Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AECI), for the managing of coal deliveries to the New Madrid Power Plant, located in southeast Missouri on the Mississippi River. Under the agreement, AEP will manage coal deliveries during 1998, maintain AECI's fleet of more than 600 aluminum railcars and will assist in the marketing of the company's excess railcar capacity. "The Transportation Services staff in AEP's Lancaster office will provide this function," says Tim Stanley, AEP manager-transportation and marketing. Railcar maintenance will take place at AEP's Cook Coal Terminal, Metropolis, Ill., where the company services its own fleet of 2,500 railcars, or through a subcontractor, he added. Stanley said the AECI contract represents an expansion of services that AEP provides to customers outside of its own electric utility system. Cook Coal Terminal already transloads three million tons of coal from railcars to barges annually for outside customers and 10 million tons for AEP. In addition, AEP's River Transportation Division transports some three million tons of coal and stone annually to complement its delivery of 22 million tons of coal to AEP power plants. The division also performs barge and towboat repair services at its Lakin, W.Va., drydock. "We offer a full line of river and rail transportation services," says Stanley. AECI, headquartered in Springfield, Mo., is an electric power wholesaler that provides power to six regional generation and transmission cooperatives serving 39 Missouri and three Iowa distribution cooperatives.