Akins appears on CNBC-TV’s ‘Mad Money’ program

AEP President and CEO Nick Akins appeared on CNBC-TV’s “Mad Money w/Jim Cramer” Oct. 30 to discuss AEP’s third-quarter earnings results, continued lackluster demand in the company’s industrial sector, energy efficiency, transmission strategies and more.

View the video of this Mad Money segment.

Cramer noted that AEP last week reported solid earnings once again, despite the fact that “we’re still not seeing industrial America drive sales higher, except for Texas now, perhaps because of the shale plays.”

AEP CEO Nick Akins discusses the company’s third-quarter results and ongoing business strategies on CNBC-TV’s “Mad Money w/Jim Cramer.”

“That’s right, we’re still seeing what I call a ‘whack-a-mole’ economy where part of the customer mix does well and then the next quarter it changes, and it’s going back and forth between our commercial, industrial and residential load sectors and you see it it occurring quarter after quarter,” said Akins. “It would be great to have all three of those sectors lined up and improving, but right now the commercial sector is improving and the industrial and manufacturing sector continues to suffer.”

Akins also noted that energy conservation and energy efficiency are affecting overall demand.

“We’re seeing it in the residential sector,” he said. “Even though customer accounts are increasing, the average usage by customer is decreasing, so energy efficiency is playing a part in it.

“I think that’s why our industry and our company need to re-evaluate our business model,” he continued. “It’s really about optimization of capital and optimization of our business as opposed to just meeting an ever-increasing demand from customers, which is relatively capital efficient from the generation perspective.”

Given the current state of affairs involving coal and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, Cramer asked Akins if he felt like the day was coming when the government would order the shutdown of all coal-fired facilities.

“You never know when that might happen, but we’ve had some degree of consistency where we have been able to make environmental additions and we’ve been able to recover those costs through rates,” Akins answered. “We’re also making a transition in our resource mix from coal to natural gas and, along with renewables, energy efficiency and transmission is seen as a resource. That’s why when we look at capital, we want to focus on transmission and grid resiliency.”