COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 20, 1999 -- Main control systems at 33 generating units owned by American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) have been determined to be Year 2000 ready. The main control systems at the remaining 14 units are in various stages of remediation and testing and will be ready by June 30. Engineers started Y2K testing in October on primary control systems at AEP’s coal-fired plants. The control systems govern combustion and emissions cleaning processes and were tested without incident at the following plants: -- John E. Amos Units 1, 2 (St. Albans, W.Va.) -- Claytor (Pulaski County, Va.) -- Clinch River Units 1, 2 (Cleveland, Va.) -- Conesville Unit 6 (Conesville, Ohio) -- James M. Gavin Plant Units 1,2 (Cheshire, Ohio) -- Kanawha River Unit 1 (Glasgow, W.Va.) -- Mitchell Unit 1 (Moundsville, W.Va.) -- Muskingum River Unit 5 (Beverly, Ohio) -- Philip Sporn Units 1, 3, 4 (New Haven, W.Va.) Testing involved setting control systems’ clocks for various conditions and time transitions and then observing their operations. Time transitions included the jump from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000; leap year date testing after Jan. 1 and jumps in succeeding years in the next decade. The systems successfully performed all date transitions. “There were no guarantees, but in the end, everything worked the way it was supposed to work,” said Don Buchmueller, Information Technology project lead. “If these had been actual situations, there would have been no loss of generation.” A comprehensive system inventory and identification procedure was performed on the generating units. Testing for date, time, conditions and date transitions were successfully completed. Two units still operate with the date set for 2000 to continue to check for problems. “Testing at the plants demonstrates the Y2K readiness process we have put in place at all of the fossil and hydro facilities is working,” said Buchmueller. “The inventory, upgrading and testing of control and related systems have been the responsibility of the plant personnel, with support from the Power Generation engineering group. They are succeeding in their efforts,” he said. Not all generating units use digital control systems that need to be checked for Y2K-sensitive dates. Seven units with analog controls can be manually operated and are not impacted by Y2K. Additionally, upgrades made to control systems at 12 other units require no additional testing due to their configurations. Minor system upgrades recommended after initial testing at the plants will be performed by June 1. AEP is working towards having its remaining mission-critical and high-priority systems ready for the millennium by June 30 to meet corporate goals and the target date recommended by the North American Electric Reliability Council. NERC, an independent group that works with electric utilities to ensure electricity reliability, was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy to monitor electric utilities’ Y2K readiness. Y2K refers to disruptions that could occur if computer systems cannot distinguish between the years 1900 and 2000. In order to save space, earlier computers were programmed to read only the last two digits of a date, such as “99” for 1999. When the calendar changes to 2000, computer systems may believe it is 1900 and malfunction or even shut down. 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.