ABAG POWER Delivers Green Energy to Cities and Counties in Northern California; Calpine Contract Provides Clean Power and Energy Savings.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 1999--

ABAG POWER today announced an agreement with Calpine Corporation to provide "green power" to ABAG POWER members.

This renewable energy will light up government properties for 59 participating agencies, representing 6,000 meters, in Northern California beginning September 1999.

ABAG POWER is a member service program administered by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).

"We're very excited about our new partnership with Calpine," said Elena Schmid, ABAG POWER manager. "Not only will we supply green power to cities, counties and special districts, but we'll also provide significant energy savings to local governments. That's great news for our members and for their taxpayers," Schmid added.

In addition to the cities and counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, the ABAG POWER service territory also includes the City of Davis and the Counties of Butte, Humboldt, Monterey and Santa Cruz.

Since the electric industry was restructured in April 1998, the use of green power has grown and now represents over 10% of energy produced in California. The California Energy Commission has encouraged this growth by administering a fund of $540 million for incentives for the development and use of renewable power production.

ABAG POWER registered as a "Renewable Provider" with the Energy Commission, allowing the program to take advantage of state-mandated incentives for adding renewable power to California's electrical grid system. ABAG POWER will participate in the Energy Commission's Customer-Side Renewable Purchase program, which has $48.6 million allocated for green power incentives.

ABAG Publicly Owned Energy Resources (ABAG POWER) is a joint powers agency of local governments formed to make pooled purchases of electricity after the California electricity market was restructured in 1998.

Calpine is one of the nation's fastest growing independent power companies based in San Jose, Calif. Calpine is dedicated to providing reliable and competitively priced electricity and thermal energy. It currently has 7,900 megawatts of capacity in operation, under construction or in announced development in 12 states. In May of this year, Calpine purchased The Geysers generation facilities from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), making them the largest producer of geothermal power in the United States.