COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2002 - AEP Energy Services Ltd., the London-based European wholesale energy marketing and trading subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), has hired 35 former employees from Enron Nordic Energy and assumed operation of existing offices in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden.

The Nordic energy marketing and trading organization provides AEP Energy Services’ European wholesale group with an established capability for power and weather trading, origination and portfolio management in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany. The team is headed by Thor Lien and is a substantial participant in Nordic markets.

“The Nordic region is a mature energy market, but one where - to date - AEP has not participated,” said Hank Jones, senior vice president with AEP Energy Services and head of AEP’s wholesale business in Europe. “We’ve said we would enter the Nordic market only if we acquired or developed the expertise to enable us to be successful in the market.

“Adding Thor and his team immediately provides us with a proven wholesale platform in the Nordic region, extensive market expertise and a capability to utilize the interconnector that moves power between Germany and Denmark,” Jones said. “This addition of an established, successful Nordic marketing and trading organization represents another important milestone in our continued growth.”

AEP’s growth strategy focuses on key aspects of the wholesale fuel and power generation value chain - generation and related energy assets, wholesale marketing and trading of energy commodities, fuel procurement and transportation and related activities. AEP Energy Services continues to aggressively build its wholesale energy capabilities in the United Kingdom and Europe, using AEP’s very successful U.S. wholesale structure as a model.

In December, AEP completed the acquisition of Fiddler’s Ferry and Ferrybridge, two 2,000 megawatt coal-fired power plants in the United Kingdom, from Edison Mission Energy, a subsidiary of Edison International. The acquisition allows AEP to replicate its successful asset-backed U.S. wholesale model in the UK.

Also in December, AEP Energy Services acquired existing contracts and hired 22 key employees from the Enron international coal team in the UK. The addition of the London-based coal marketing organization provided AEP Energy Services’ European wholesale group with an established capability for procurement, transportation and delivery of coal across geographic regions.

American Electric Power is a multinational energy company based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP owns and operates more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity, making it America’s largest generator of electricity. The company is also a leading wholesale energy marketer and trader, ranking second in North America in wholesale electricity and wholesale natural gas volume. AEP provides retail electricity to more than 7 million customers worldwide and has holdings in the U.S. and select international markets. Wholly owned subsidiaries are involved in power engineering and construction services.

The comments set forth above include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including (1) statements concerning the Company´s plans, objectives, expected performance and expenditures and (2) other statements that are other than statements of historical fact. These forward-looking statements reflect assumptions, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are electric load and customer growth, abnormal weather conditions, availability of generating capacity, the ability to recover net regulatory assets and other stranded costs in connection with deregulation of generation, the outcome of environmental regulation and litigation, the impact of fluctuation in commodity prices and interest rates, and other risks and unforeseen events over which the Company has no control. The reader is also directed to the Company´s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional factors that may impact the Company´s results of operations and financial condition. Furthermore, historical results may not be indicative of the Company´s future performance.