COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 27, 1998 – American Electric Power Company (NYSE:AEP) today reported net income for the third quarter of 1998 increased 114.3 percent to $195.4 million or $1.02 per share from $91.2 million or 48 cents per share in 1997.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 1998, net income increased 20.6 percent to $464 million, or $2.44 per share, compared with $384.9 million or $2.04 a share in 1997.

Net income was $590.1 million, or $3.10 a share for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 1998, an increase of 14.1 percent compared with $517.3 million, or $2.74 a share in 1997.

The favorable results were due to continued growth of AEP´s trading and marketing business and to non-recurring special items from the company´s investment in Yorkshire Electricity Group which included a 1997 extraordinary loss for the United Kingdom´s one-time windfall tax on privatized utilities net of tax benefits and credits, offset in part by a 1998 write-down of Yorkshire´s investment in Ionica, a UK telecommunications company.

Year-to-year earnings before non-recurring special items increased by 10.3 percent or $0.08 per share for the third quarter and by 2.8 percent or $0.06 per share for the nine months ended September. For the 12 months ended September, year-to-year earnings per share before non-recurring special items remained unchanged at $3.19 despite an increase in the average number of shares outstanding.

"The third quarter increase in earnings before non-recurring special items reflects increased sales at both the retail and wholesale levels," said E. Linn Draper, Jr., AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer.

"Retail sales for the third quarter increased by 6 percent, reflecting the impact of warmer weather on retail usage. Despite tight energy supplies and volatile energy prices, the net revenue from wholesale marketing and trading of energy and sales of transmission services increased by approximately $90 million. We are very pleased with the growth and risk management skills we have developed since we initiated the trading and marketing activity 18 months ago."

An extended outage of the Cook Nuclear Plant generating units, which began in September 1997, adversely affected third quarter earnings as the cost to repair the units increased operations and maintenance expense.

The improvement in earnings for the year-to-date period before the Yorkshire non-recurring special items reflects increased energy sales to retail customers due to weather and customer growth and the positive contribution from the wholesale power marketing and trading activities and transmission services. These favorable earnings effects were partly offset by an increase in operations and maintenance costs related to the Cook Plant outage and repairs and restoration of service caused by two severe snowstorms.

For the 12-month period, earnings before the Yorkshire non-recurring special items rose as a result of increased retail customer usage during the summer of 1998, the addition of new customers and equity earnings from the company´s April 1997 investment in Yorkshire. Costs incurred for the extended outage of the Cook units and the repairs for snowstorm damage largely offset these increases.

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.

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