Company Report: AEP Texas
AEP Texas AEP Texas wires company wants to reform the way it, and its peers, can set electric power rates...

During the 1990s and earlier in this decade several states believed that sanctioned monopolies were keeping electric rates high while not necessarily promoting improvements in the quality of service. Deregulation was seen as a means to break up the state sanctioned monopolies and bring competition and choice to the generation and sale of electricity to businesses and the public.

By and large, these efforts have been met with mixed results. In Texas, though, it is more widely believed that deregulation has been a relative success, albeit with a few lingering hangovers. One of these unresolved issues is regulatory proceedings for electric
transmission and distribution in Texas. And it is one that Charles Patton, president and COO of AEP Texas (a subsidiary of American Electric Power), believes is the most critical challenge his company faces.

"Over the long-term this one issue will dictate how successful the regional wires companies in the state will be," he says, "AEP Texas is moving forward, but this is a very big issue for us."

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