COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of American Electric Power Co. (NYSE: AEP) today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 42 cents a share on the company's common stock.

The dividend is payable Sept. 10, 2010, to shareholders of record as of Aug. 10, 2010, and is the company's 401st consecutive quarterly common stock cash dividend. AEP has paid a cash dividend on its common stock every quarter since July 1910.

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.

SOURCE American Electric Power