COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 5, 2006 – American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) will mark the 100th anniversary of its incorporation when Michael G. Morris, AEP’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, rings The Closing Bell^SM at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this afternoon.

A live webcast of the event can be accessed on the home page of www.nyse.com beginning at 3:55 p.m. EST today.

AEP was incorporated in the state of New York Dec. 20, 1906, and the company’s stock has been traded on the NYSE since 1949.

“We’re honored to be able to observe our centennial by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange,” Morris said. “We have been marking our anniversary in various ways throughout the year.

“AEP has a long history as a technological leader in the electric utility industry,” he said. “Our company has pioneered many technologies, systems and processes that have set the standard for our industry, from new power generation techniques to reliable, efficient transmission design. And we continue to play a leadership role in finding ways to limit the impacts of our business and to help ensure a cleaner environment for future generations.”

In its early years, AEP – originally known as American Gas and Electric Co. (AG&E) – was a collection of small utilities scattered from the East Coast to the Midwest. AG&E’s first purchase was 23 small companies sold by Philadelphia-based Electric Company of America. The company’s first interconnected system was a 33,000-volt transmission line between Marion and Muncie, Ind., that entered service in 1911.

Among the many industry “firsts” attributable to AEP are: the nation’s first major “mine-mouth” power plant, the Windsor Plant near Wheeling, W.Va., which began operating in 1917; the nation’s first long-distance high-voltage transmission line, a 138-kilovolt (kV) line, also completed in 1917; the world’s first 345-kV transmission line, which began operating in 1953; the world’s first 765-kV transmission line, completed in 1969; and construction of the world’s largest coal-fired generating unit, a 1,300-megawatt unit at Amos Plant near Winfield, W.Va., that entered service in 1973.

Today, AEP is one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owns the largest electricity transmission system in the U.S. and serves customers in 11 states. The company also has significant transportation assets, including railcars, barges and towboats, and consumes approximately 75 million tons of coal annually.

Company headquarters moved from New York City to Columbus in the early 1980s.

AEP is entering its next century of operations with significant planned investments in both power generation and transmission to meet projected customer demand and to strengthen the nation’s power grid.

In 2004, AEP was the first utility to announce plans to build large-scale commercial Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) clean-coal power plants. IGCC technology will greatly reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, particulates, nitrogen oxides and mercury. It also will lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and accommodate future capture of CO2 at a lower capital cost, and with lower efficiency losses, than conventional coal-fueled technologies.

AEP is a leading utility proponent of the need for a nationwide interstate transmission system modeled after the national interstate highway network and was the first entity to propose a new transmission “superhighway” to address constraints affecting the eastern U.S. grid. Early this year, AEP proposed a 550-mile, 765-kV line that would extend from West Virginia to New Jersey. The line, if approved, is projected to enter service in 2014.

The company also recently announced a proposed joint venture with MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. to build and own new transmission assets in Texas, as well as plans to study the feasibility of extending AEP’s 765-kV transmission infrastructure through Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

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 nearly 36,000 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 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 Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2006.