American Electric Power

39°57′55″N 83°00′18″W / 39.9652°N 83.0051°W / 39.9652; -83.0051

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP; railcar reporting mark: AEPX) is an American domestic electric utility company in the United States. It is one of the largest electric utility companies in the country, with more than five million customers in 11 states.

American Electric Power Company is one of the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile (63,000 km) network that includes more 765 kilovolt ultra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly provides 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 the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the transmission system that covers much of Texas.

AEP's utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia, West Virginia, and 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.

American Electric Power was the first utility to utilize 345 kV transmission lines which took place in 1953. The company ranked 185th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

The company is divided into seven major geographic local operating companies:

AEP Ohio serves 1.5 million customers in central, southern and northwestern Ohio. For years, it consisted of two operating companies, Ohio Power and Columbus Southern Power. However, in 2014, Columbus Southern was merged into Ohio Power, leaving Ohio Power as the legal operating company for regulatory purposes.

AEP Texas was formed from a merger of various predecessor utilities, and joined AEP as part of its acquisition of Central and South West Corporation in 1997. It consists of AEP Texas North Company (formerly West Texas Utilities), which operates in west Texas, and AEP Texas Central Company (formerly Central Power and Light), which operates in south Texas.