COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 9, 2003 - E. Linn Draper Jr., American Electric Power’s (NYSE: AEP) chairman, president and chief executive officer, announced today that he plans to retire in 2004, on or around the company’s annual meeting of shareholders next April.

AEP’s Board of Directors will soon begin the process of identifying Draper’s successor. The Board plans to retain a firm to conduct the search and will consider both internal and external candidates.

“It has been my great privilege to serve AEP for more than 10 years,” said Draper, 61. “However, it is important to renew leadership from time to time at all organizations and the time is right both for me and for AEP to begin an orderly succession process.”

Draper became president of AEP in March 1992, following 13 years with Gulf States Utilities Co. in Beaumont, Texas, where he served as chairman, president and chief executive officer. He became chairman, president and chief executive officer of AEP in May 1993.

Before joining Gulf States Utilities, Draper served on the faculty and administration at the University of Texas in Austin, where he had been an associate professor and director of the Nuclear Engineering Program.

American Electric Power owns and operates more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and select international markets and is the largest electricity generator in the U.S. AEP is also one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with almost 5 million customers linked to AEP’s 11-state electricity transmission and distribution grid. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio.