Mission, Values, & Strategy

American Electric Power has a strong tradition of leadership, service and contributions to the communities we serve.

AEP's Mission: Bringing comfort to our customers, supporting business and commerce, and building strong communities.

Our Values

• Zero Harm
  • Demonstrating a commitment to safety by looking out for each other
  • Showing mutual care for the health and well-being of others
• Integrity & Stewardship
  • Doing the right thing, every time
  • Valuing the diversity of people, their ideas and contributions
  • Treating people with respect
  • Being a good corporate citizen and environmental steward
• Adapt & Achieve
  • Being agile and proactive to adapt and be ahead of change
  • Being innovative and resilient as we embrace new ideas and opportunities
  • Collaborating across boundaries
  • Engaging in improving our business
  • Taking accountability for decisions and actions
• Customer Focus
  • Listening to customers
  • Considering the customer impact of our decisions
  • Delivering value to our customers

Our Strategy

• Safety, performance and value in electric power generation, transmission and distribution.
• Respect our people and give them the opportunity to be as successful as they can be.
• Meet the energy needs of our customers in ways that improve their quality of life and protect the environment today and for generations to come.
• Improve the environmental and safety performance of our generating fleet, and add to that fleet for growth.
• Set the standards for safety, efficiency and reliability in our electric transmission and distribution systems.
• Nurture strong and productive relationships with our public officials and regulators.
• Provide our leadership, integrity and compassion as a corporate citizen of every community we serve.

Our Vision For Sustainability

American Electric Power will be an energy leader through programs and technologies that protect people, manage our impacts on the environment, promote energy efficiency, provide for customer control over electricity usage and provide for greater access to renewable forms of energy and advanced clean energy technologies. We will work with our regulators and other stakeholders to achieve this through an approach that maximizes the positive economic, social and environmental impacts of our operations.

Environment, Safety & Health

Environment, Safety & Health Philosophy
No aspect of operations is more important than the health and safety of people. Our customers’ needs are met in harmony with environmental protection.

Environment, Safety & Health Policy
AEP is committed to social responsibility and sustainability. We are proactive in our efforts to protect people and the environment by committing to:

• Maintain compliance with all applicable ES&H requirements while pursuing the spirit of ES&H stewardship;
• Ensure that people working for or on behalf of AEP understand and integrate ES&H responsibilities into their business functions;
• Support continual improvement of environmental performance and pollution prevention; and
• Hazard elimination through employee involvement and continual health and safety improvement

Our Job

It's hard to improve on what AEP President George Tidd wrote in 1934 about the pride we take in supplying people with a fundamental requirement of living:

Our job is producing energy and getting it wherever our customers use it – with efficiency and with respect for the environment. We’re in this business because it is concerned with the supply of a fundamental requirement of modern living, because it’s an honorable one, because we like it, and because we want to earn a living at it.

We aim to give one kind of service to everyone … the best that’s possible. That means supplying our customers with what they want when they want it. It means being courteous and easy to do business with at all times. It means doing everything we can to keep complaints from arising, and it means prompt and fair handling of those that do.

We are citizens of each community we serve and take an active part in its affairs. Like any other citizen, we want our neighbors to think well of us. Besides, it makes good business sense. We prosper only as the community prospers; so we help it thrive in every way we can.

Such is our job as we see it. We are trying to do it well and do it better all the time.

The American Gas and Electric Company was incorporated Dec. 20, 1906. The company was formed from a utility holding company, Electric Company of America, which was organized in 1899. The company acquired its first utility properties Jan. 2, 1907. These properties provided electric service, gas, water, steam, transit, or ice service in communities in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The company became American Electric Power in 1958 and merged with Central and Southwest Corporation in 2000.