GAHANNA, OHIO - - Thursday, May 8, 2008 – Joe Hamrock, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer, today announced a functional organization realignment that provides two generation positions to his staff:

- Steve Burge has been appointed vice president – Generating Assets for the company. In his new position Burge will oversee the operations of the company’s generating plants.
- Toby Thomas has been named director -- Gas Turbines, Wind and Joint Venture Generation.

"These appointments take us closer to the operating company model where we move more operations closer to the customer and to the regulator,” said Hamrock.

Burge joined the AEP System in 1972. He most recently served as vice president – Western Generation Assets. Burge holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a master of business administration degree, both from West Virginia University.

Thomas began his career at AEP in 2001 and most recently served as director – Gas Turbine & Joint Venture Generation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Columbus Southern Power Company and Ohio Power Company in Ohio, and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP).

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 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 Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.