COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 25, 2000 – American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP) today reported net income for the year ended Dec. 31, 1999, of $520 million, or $2.69 per share, compared with $536 million, or $2.81 per share in 1998.

Earnings for the fourth quarter were $107 million, or 55 cents per share, compared with $72 million, or 38 cents per share, for fourth quarter 1998.

“The continued outage of the Cook Nuclear Plant and the effect of milder than normal temperatures on retail and wholesale sales depressed our earnings for 1999,” said E. Linn Draper Jr., AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Although our nuclear operations and maintenance expenses increased because of Cook, we were able to reduce our non-nuclear operations and maintenance expenses by 12 cents per share.”

The extended outage of the Cook Nuclear Plant began in September 1997 when both generating units were shut down because of questions regarding the operability of certain safety systems. Under the company´s restart plan, Unit 2 is scheduled to restart on April 1 and Unit 1 is scheduled to restart on Sept. 1.

In December 1999 the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a settlement agreement that permitted the deferral back to January 1999 of Cook outage and restart expenses for amortization commensurate with recovery in rates through 2003. A similar agreement was reached in Indiana in the first quarter. Twelve-month earnings per share were reduced by 43 cents in 1999 from the restart efforts net of deferrals under the Indiana and Michigan settlement agreements.

AEP, a global energy company, is one of the United States´ largest investor-owned utilities, providing energy to 3 million customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. AEP has holdings in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia. Wholly owned subsidiaries provide power engineering, energy consulting and energy management services around the world. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. On Dec. 22, 1997, AEP announced a definitive merger agreement for a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction with Central and South West Corp., a public utility holding company based in Dallas.


View Financial Data here