As a system that serves 11 states in an area from Virginia to Texas, our resilience is tested routinely. A part of our service territory is often under some sort of outage and AEP crews respond as quickly as possible to restore power.

We are tested around the clock by storms, flood, lightening and equipment failures. Because of advance planning, companywide coordination and attention to detail, AEP is able to marshal resources to restore service in our own areas and in other utilities' service areas as well.

In our own service territory, Public Service Company of Oklahoma suffered widespread service interruptions twice in a 12-month span from major ice storms. In January 2007, an ice storm knocked out power to 100,000 customers. Damage was so extensive that some customers were without power for 10 days, despite an influx of workers from nearby AEP utilities and others. In December 2007, another ice storm left a total of 260,000 customers without electricity in what some called the worst natural disaster in the state's history. Most of our customers had electricity service restored within eight days.

The utility industry has an established process in which utilities help each other when major events overwhelm their systems. Once that process is activated, we are capable of sending crews from throughout our system within hours of a call and even providing food and temporary quarters if the need arises. Through mutual assistance agreements, many of those companies have also helped AEP in dire weather crises. AEP is routinely recognized by the Edison Electric Institute, the industry's primary trade association, for our ability to help other utilities. In 2006 – 2007, our crews provided assistance to 12 utilities across the United States.

The company's Business Continuity Plan includes planning for a natural or man-made disaster that destroys or renders unusable the company's headquarters or other key facilities, or affects employees and their families. The plan is updated continuously and practiced routinely so that key business functions can be carried on without major interruption. Backup locations have been identified for key personnel and functions. Affected personnel can be issued laptop computers to continue to work remotely. Plans have been expanded to include possible epidemics, such as the avian flu, that could render a large number of employees unable to work.

In addition to planning for unexpected disasters, AEP is also planning for the future leadership of the company. We have a senior management succession plan to ensure the company's future leadership sustainability.

Resiliency is increasingly being recognized as a factor in sustainability. According to the Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University, of which AEP is a founding member, "the key to sustainability of these systems is resilience, the ability to resist disorder" when referring to the combination of economic, environmental and social performance.

According to the Center, enhancing resilience not only strengthens a company's operations and improves financial performance, it enhances many intangibles such as reputation, employee motivation and process excellence.

We are tested around the clock by storms, flood, lightening and equipment failures.