Smart meters to cut energy costs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Electric Power Co(AEP.N) and General Electric Co's (GE.N) GE Energy will cooperate to build and deploy advanced electricity "smart" meters designed to help consumers cut their energy costs, the companies said on Thursday.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a technology that would allow customers to gauge the costs of electricity at different times of the day, enabling them to cut their power costs.

AEP said it plans to roll out the meters to 200,000 customers by the end of 2008, pending approval by regulators, and expand that to more than 5 million by the end of 2015.

(Reporting by Matt Daily, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)