CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power, both subsidiaries of American Electric Power, today jointly filed with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia for a $183 million revenue increase. The overall 23 percent increase will affect all the company's customers in West Virginia. The company proposes to phase in the requested increase over four years, with an initial increase of about 11 percent or $89 million in mid 2006, and additional smaller increases in January 2007, 2008 and 2009. If approved, the requested increase will vary among customer classes to more closely align rates to the cost of providing service to those customers. Over the four-year period, the increase will ultimately be 30 percent for residential customers. The increase for all other classes of service will range from 14 to 24 percent. The bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours in a month will rise from the current price of $55.28 to $65.20 in mid-2006, and to $70.45 by 2009. Increasing costs of coal and purchased power and the costs of environmental improvement construction projects at the company's two largest generating plants are the primary reasons for the request for increased revenue, according to Dana Waldo, Appalachian Power president and COO. The company is installing flue gas desulfurization units (FGDs or scrubbers) at its Mountaineer Plant in New Haven and its John Amos Plant near Winfield. "Though these environmental projects are expensive, they will result in cleaner air at the lowest possible cost," Waldo said. "In addition, they are needed to comply with mandated federal and state clean air laws." Waldo said that even with the proposed rate increase, Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power rates will be among the lowest in the region and the nation. Rates for customers in southern West Virginia have not increased since 1992 and in fact have declined about 3 percent during that time. Rates for customers in Ohio and Marshall counties have not increased since 1995 and have been declining annually since 2003, a total decline of almost 15 percent. Appalachian Power provides electricity to 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. It is a unit of American Electric Power, the nation's largest electricity generator. AEP owns more than 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity and is one of the nation's largest electric utilities, with more than 5 million customers in 11 states. This report made by AEP and certain of its subsidiaries contains forward- looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although AEP and each of its registrant subsidiaries believe that their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any such statements may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are: electric load and customer growth; weather conditions, including storms; available sources and costs of, and transportation for, fuels and the creditworthiness of fuel suppliers and transporters; availability of generating capacity and the performance of AEP's generating plants; the ability to recover regulatory assets and stranded costs in connection with deregulation; the ability to recover increases in fuel and other energy costs through regulated or competitive electric rates; new legislation, litigation and government regulation including requirements for reduced emissions of sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, carbon and other substances; timing and resolution of pending and future rate cases, negotiations and other regulatory decisions (including rate or other recovery for new investments, transmission service and environmental compliance);resolution of litigation (including pending Clean Air Act enforcement actions and disputes arising from the bankruptcy of Enron Corp.); AEP's ability to constrain its operation and maintenance costs; AEP's ability to sell assets at acceptable prices and on other acceptable terms, including rights to share in earnings derived from the assets subsequent to their sale; the economic climate and growth in AEP's service territory and changes in market demand and demographic patterns; inflationary trends; AEP's ability to develop and execute a strategy based on a view regarding prices of electricity, natural gas, and other energy-related commodities; changes in the creditworthiness and number of participants in the energy trading market; changes in the financial markets, particularly those affecting the availability of capital and AEP's ability to refinance existing debt at attractive rates; actions of rating agencies, including changes in the ratings of debt; volatility and changes in markets for electricity, natural gas, and other energy-related commodities; changes in utility regulation, including membership and integration into regional transmission structures; accounting pronouncements periodically issued by accounting standard-setting bodies; the performance of AEP's pension and other postretirement benefit plans; prices for power that AEP generates and sells at wholesale; changes in technology and other risks and unforeseen events, including wars, the effects of terrorism (including increased security costs), embargoes and other catastrophic events. DATASOURCE: Appalachian Power CONTACT: Jeri Matheney, Corporate Communications General Manager of American Electric Power, +1-304-348-4130, or cell, +1-304-543-1377, or Web site: http://www.aep.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/042050.html

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