GAHANNA, Ohio – May 24, 2012 – AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), has been recognized for a program designed to teach energy efficiency and conservation to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout its 63-county service territory.

The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) hosted its annual EMERALDS – the premier green awards program of the region – May 22 and awarded AEP Ohio its Environmental Education award, an honor they shared with the Ohio Avenue Elementary School.

The entry –AEP Ohio’s Business Incentive Program – has educated thousands of non-residential business customers who have learned the value of conserving electricity and how it benefits them in the short-term through cash incentives and sustainably over time through savings on electric bills.

AEP Ohio developed the Business Incentive Program to encourage commercial and industrial, governmental, institutional and nonprofit customers to improve energy efficiency in existing and new facilities. To facilitate change, AEP Ohio devised sub-programs targeted to customer needs.

• Prescriptive Program: Provides set financial incentives to customers who implement energy-efficient improvements and technologies that reduce energy consumption
• Custom Program: Implements energy-efficiency improvements that reduce energy consumption and peak demand that are not part of the Prescriptive Program
• New Construction Program: Offers financial incentives to encourage building owners, designers and architects to exceed standard building practices to achieve efficiency beyond current building energy-code requirements
• Self-Direct Program: Offers customers cash incentives for previously completed energy- efficiency projects that have resulted in energy savings and peak-demand reduction
• Express Program: Small businesses can take advantage of this program to help reduce expenses and better manage operating costs

Throughout the duration of the program, nearly 6,000 energy-efficiency projects have been implemented, saving nearly 600,000,000 kilowatt hours – or enough energy to power 56,000 homes for an entire year. In the process, AEP Ohio has reached thousands of commercial customers at professional associations, chambers of commerce, trade associations, school board meetings, engineering and architecture firms, training seminars and more.

“Our program is teaching environmental responsibility and helping to develop lasting conservation habits,” said Andy McCabe, Manager Commercial and Industrial Programs, AEP Ohio. “In the process of our outreach, we not only educated people, but we also equipped them with the tools to implement lasting change in their workplace and to take those same tools out to the community and to their homes.”

The program continues to evolve by adding new measures to meet the needs and demands of AEP Ohio customers who want to save energy and money.

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. News and information about AEP Ohio can be found at AEPohio.com.

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.