Nov 6 (Reuters) -

American Electric Power ( AEP ) is considering more asset

sales to help fund its five-year $54 billion capital expenditure

plan, which has jumped by 25% from the previous plan, company

executives said on Wednesday.

AEP is also considering cutting layers of management and

various equity strategies to reduce costs and raise capital to

fund its build-out plan, which includes $10 billion in

transmission construction to accommodate new power demand from

data centers and other large customers.

"We have a lot of wood to chop yet around the company,"

AEP CEO Bill Furman said on a company earnings call. Furman

declined to say which parts of the company could be put up for

sale.

The company finalized large wind and solar asset sales

since 2023.

AEP expects 20 gigawatts of new load through 2029, with

data centers driving that growth. That demand would be about a

60% increase from the company's current peak load.

AEP beat estimates for third-quarter profit on

Wednesday, as higher electricity usage at data centers boosted

demand from commercial customers.

U.S. power demand is poised to rise to record highs by the

end of 2024, backed by growing demand for artificial

intelligence data centers, according to U.S. Energy Information

Administration data.

Columbus, Ohio-based AEP said its commercial load - the

amount of power used by customers at a given point - increased

more than 10% in the reported quarter compared with last year

and expects commercial load to grow an average of 20% annually

over the next three years based on signed customer contracts.

Sales growth is rising more than it has since the late

1960s, the company said.

Data centers could use up to 9% of the total electricity

generated in the United States by the end of the decade,

depending on the adoption pace of GenAI and other technologies,

an Electric Power Research Institute analysis said in May.

AEP forecast 2025 operating earnings in the per-share range

of $5.75 to $5.95, compared with a Wall Street estimate of $5.98

per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

It reported operating earnings of $1.85 per share for the

three months ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts' average

estimate of $1.80 per share.