AEP Launches Enhanced Corporate Website Using Responsive Web Design

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Nov 14, 2012, 03:18 ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) today launched a new, enhanced version of the company's corporate website at www.aep.com.

The new AEP.com uses responsive web design, a relatively new technique that provides an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with minimal resizing and panning – across a wide range of devices, from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones. AEP is one of only a few Fortune 500 companies to update their corporate websites to a responsive design.

"Mobile traffic to our corporate website is growing and now makes up more than 20 percent of our visits. We expect that trend to continue as more and more people use a mobile device as their primary method of accessing the Internet. The new AEP.com can sense the size of the device a visitor is using and adapt itself to display properly on that device. This allows us to better serve the increasing number of investors, customers and others who come to our site using a tablet or smart phone," said Dale Heydlauff, AEP vice president, Corporate Communications.

The project to rebuild AEP.com using responsive design began more than a year ago, and all of the work was completed in-house using AEP resources.

AEP's corporate website began as a single page in 1995, and since then has gone through six major rebuilds, including the current version, which updates a version launched in 2008.

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 and north Texas). AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio. News releases and other information about AEP can be found at www.aep.com.