Southwestern Electric Power cuts a wide, welcome swath through the southwestern US to help beat the sweltering heat. The utility, founded in 1912, serves some 520,400 electricity customers in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Southwestern Electric Power operates 20,450 miles of transmission and distribution lines. Southwestern Electric Power also has interests in fossil-fueled power plants (including 73% of the $1.7 billion Turk plant in Arkansas) that give it a generating capacity of 4,850 MW, and it sells power to wholesale customers. The utility is a subsidiary of American Electric Power Company (AEP).