FRANKFORT, KY:  10 A.M. – Kentucky Power, with the help of more than 800 outside personnel, continues restoring power to about 15,350 customers following this week’s devastating ice storm. As of this morning, about half of the customers originally affected by power outages have been restored. At the height of the outages, Kentucky Power had more than 33,200 customers without power.
 
Adverse weather conditions, including ice covered trees, snow and poor rural road conditions continue to make restoration efforts difficult. Cold weather and the possibility of light snow is expected in the region again today. At this time, Kentucky Power estimates it will be Wed. Feb. 4 before all of its customers are returned to service, although the largest majority of customers will see power restored by midnight Sunday.
 
Downed power lines continue to be a problem and company officials caution Eastern Kentucky residents to never approach downed power lines or wires of any type. No matter how harmless a downed wire may appear it should be considered energized and dangerous. Report all downed power lines to Kentucky Power at (800) 572-1113 or notify local emergency or law enforcement officials immediately. Never approach or touch anything that comes in contact with a downed power line.
 
As of 10 a.m. today, the following outage numbers and restoration information was estimated by the company. Company officials said outage numbers can still increase as the ice-laden trees continue to break and damage power lines and equipment. Long range forecasts call for the possibility of more wintry weather early next week.
 
Service Area

Cannonsburg/Ashland, 10,400
Est. Rest. for 90 percent of customers, midnight, Sun. 2/1/09; remainder by Wed. 2/4/09
 
Paintsville, 4,250 (includes Salyersville, West Liberty)
Est. Rest. for 90 percent of customers, midnight, Sun. 2/1/09; remainder by midnight, Mon. 2/2/09
 
South Williamson, 700
Est. Rest. for 90 percent of customers, noon, Sat. 1/31/09; remainder by noon, Sun. 2/1/09
 
Total 15,350
 
Customers and media representatives can track the number of outages in their area by going to www.kentuckypower.com and clicking on "storm & outage center" then "see current outages." The site provides a customer outage count by county.
 
Kentucky Power is an operating unit of American Electric Power and provides electricity to approximately 175,000 customers in all or parts of 20 Eastern Kentucky counties.
 
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.