Washington (Platts)--11Sep2007

In the first step of what American Electric Power is calling a
large-scale commitment to battery storage technology, the company Tuesday said
it will install batteries at three different sites on its distribution grid to
help offset the intermittent nature of wind generation.

     Columbus, Ohio-based AEP said it will add stationary sodium sulfur (NAS)
batteries in its West Virginia and Ohio service territories next year. A third
site will be announced in a few weeks, and the total cost of the three
installations is $27 million, the company said.

     The three battery systems to be installed have a total capacity of 6 MW,
but AEP said it intends to have 1,000 MW of advanced storage capacity on its
system in the next 10 years. "Our near-term goal is to have at least 25 MW of
NAS battery capacity in place by the end of this decade. But this is just a
start," AEP Chairman, President and CEO Michael Morris said in a statement.

     AEP intends to look at a broad spectrum of storage technologies, such as
flow batteries, pumped hydropower storage, plug-in hybrid vehicles and others
in the early stages of development to determine their potential for improving
reliability, boosting efficiency and offsetting infrastructure investments,
Morris said.

     Morris said AEP is a first mover among utilities on advanced storage
technologies and he believes other companies will follow with deployments in
the coming years.

     AEP said it had placed an order for the three new NAS batteries with NGK
Insulators of Japan, the manufacturer and co-developer, along with Tokyo
Electric Power, of the technology to be installed next year. AEP has been
using the technology on a limited scale for a few years, including at a
substation near Charleston, West Virginia, which it said delayed the need for
upgrades at the substation.

		--Tom Tiernan, tom_tiernan@platts.com