TULSA, Okla., December 17, 2007 – Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is issuing estimated bills to approximately half of its customers in the Tulsa metropolitan area and several other PSO-served communities due to its need to deploy many of its meter readers as guides for out-of-town crews who are assisting PSO in the massive power restoration effort following the devastating December 9 and 10 ice storm.
 
The first storm-related estimated bills were mailed Monday, December 10; the estimations will continue throughout this week.
 
In response to the most destructive ice storm in Oklahoma’s history, PSO assembled a huge power restoration work force, including thousands of utility linemen and tree trimmers from 14 states, to assist the PSO workers.  PSO deployed a majority of its meter reading employees to serve as guides for the out-of-state crews to lead them to locations where power restoration work is needed.
 
As a result of this emergency redeployment of the meter readers, PSO has not read any meters in the Tulsa metropolitan area and in several other communities in northeastern Oklahoma since Friday, December 7.
 
Customers can look at their bills to see if their reading is estimated or actual, which is indicated in the “Usage” section of their bill and designated with a “Read Code” of E for (estimated) or A for (actual).
 
“We know that our need to estimate bills last week and this week means we will be billing many customers for days when they had no electric service due to the ice storm,” said Bobby Mouser, PSO’s director of Customer Services and Marketing. “I want to assure these customers that we will ‘true-up’ their bill amounts when we obtain actual readings during the billing cycles in January, and adjust their bills to reflect their actual energy usage.
 
“We also will be happy to work with our customers one-on-one to make adjustments in their storm-related estimated bills, if they believe the estimate is inaccurate.  All they need to do is call PSO and discuss their situation.”
 
Mouser pointed out that even adjusted estimates will be corrected the next time PSO gets an actual meter reading at the customer’s address.
 
Customers who wish to discuss their estimated bill should call PSO’s Customer Solutions Center at 1-888-216-3523.
 
PSO, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), is an electric utility company serving approximately 520,000 customers in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma.  Based in Tulsa, PSO has more than 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and is the largest provider of wind energy in the state.  News releases and other information about PSO can be found on the World Wide Web at PSOklahoma.com.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.  AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S.  AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.  AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas.  AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power