COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 19, 2003 - American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) officials said the report on the Aug. 14 blackout released today by the U.S./Canada Power Outage Task Force provides a comprehensive, in-depth, independent analysis of the events of Aug. 14.

“Although we are still reviewing the report, we believe it is representative of the events that occurred Aug. 14 and offers a very thorough evaluation of what occurred that day. We applaud the efforts of the members of the task force and their painstaking efforts to analyze the voluminous data collected,” said Tom Shockley, AEP’s vice chairman and chief operating officer.

“AEP has and continues to support the Joint Task Force investigation of Aug. 14, including providing data about the events on our system and providing technical expertise. We will continue to work with the task force to assist with the development of recommendations for improving the system going forward,” Shockley said.

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.