AES to Acquire 600 MW Coal Plant in South Africa.

Business Editors

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 2001

The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) announced today that its subsidiary, AES South Africa Holdings together with its South African empowerment partner, Global African Power, Limited ("GAP"), have entered into agreements to purchase the 600 MW (Gross) coal-fired Kelvin Power Station in the Republic of South Africa.

The plant is located just outside the metropolitan area of Johannesburg. AES will own 95% of the joint venture that is buying the plant, with GAP having an option to increase its ownership to 13% over five years. AES Kelvin Power will sell it's entire output to City Power Johannesburg, (Proprietary) Limited, the distribution company for the City of Johannesburg under the terms of a 20 year power purchase agreement

The purchase price for the Kelvin Station is approximately $23 million, and is being acquired from the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality ("CJMM"), which will retain a 50% interest in AES Kelvin with shareholder rights limited to protecting the employment of workers for three years. AES Kelvin will receive 100% of distributions and have operating control of the plant.

In addition to the purchase price, AES has committed to invest about $15 million in capital to refurbish the plant, including a new bag filtration system making it one of the cleanest plants in South Africa and expects to spend another $11 million for worker transition costs over the first three years of operation.

AES expects to finance at least 50% of this acquisition with debt from South African banks in local currency.

John Stanley-Miller, the AES Project Director, commented, "This is a good business for AES as we have a 20 year power purchase agreement with a fixed capacity payment, hedged against exchange rate risk and a pass-through on the energy cost. The structure of the contract means that AES does not take either heat rate or fuel price risk".

Dennis W. Bakke, President and CEO of AES, stated, "Kelvin will be the first AES business in South Africa, which has a well developed, 38,000 MW electrical system. We are pleased to have this opportunity to make a difference in South Africa and improve the operations of a power facility based on our experience around the world with approximately 40 other AES operated coal-fired plants."

Business development milestones in 2001 include the following:

-- In November, AES terminated its tender offers to purchase shares and ADSs of
Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV).

-- In August, a subsidiary of AES announced that it intends to launch a cash
tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding loan participation certificates
of Edelnor.

-- In July a subsidiary of AES completed the final phase of its acquisition of
the energy assets of Thermo Ecotek Corporation.

-- In July, a subsidiary of AES signed agreements to acquire a 56% interest in
SONEL, an integrated electricity utility in Cameroon.

-- In July, a subsidiary of AES acquired a majority of the energy assets of
Thermo Ecotek Corporation.

-- In June, AES signed a definitive agreement to sell the customers and related
assets of AES Power Direct.

-- In June, a subsidiary of AES secured the financing for its $104 million, 163
MW combined cycle diesel-fired power plant in Sri Lanka.

-- In June, AES announced that its AES-3C Maritza East 1 project in Bulgaria
signed two key contracts with NEK and Maritza East Mines.

-- In May, AES was awarded the Ras Laffan 750 MW and 40 million imperial
gallons of water per day natural gas-fired, combined-cycle cogeneration power
and water desalination project in the State of Qatar.

-- In May, AES announced that it received certification from the California
Energy Commission and is set to commence construction on the refurbishment of
two retired gas-fired units 3 & 4 at Huntington Beach, California.

-- In May, a subsidiary of AES signed a strategic alliance agreement with
COTEL, the largest local telephone carrier in Bolivia.

-- In May, a subsidiary of AES secured the financing for its, $348.6 million,
427 MW Barka facility in Oman.

-- In May AES announced that it won a bid for approximately $23.2 million to
purchase a 75% controlling interest in Rivenoblenergo, the distribution company
that serves the Rivno region, which is about 200 kms from Kiev, the capital
city of Ukraine.

-- In April, AES announced that it won a bid for approximately $45.9 million to
purchase a 75% controlling interest in Kievoblenergo the distribution company
that serves the region that surrounds Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine.

-- In April, a subsidiary of AES signed agreements for the financing of its
$300 million, 450 MW combined cycle gas-fired Meghnaghat power plant in
Bangladesh.

-- In April, a subsidiary of AES completed a $180 million financing for its 360
MW gas-fired combined cycle facility Haripur in Bangladesh.

-- In April, AES announced the completion of its acquisition of IPALCO in
Indiana.

-- In March, a subsidiary of AES secured the financing for the 720 MW gas-fired
Granite Ridge project in New Hampshire.

-- In March, a subsidiary of AES acquired from EniChem SpA an oil-fired 140MW
cogeneration facility in the town of Ottana, which is in the province of Nuoro,
Sardinia, Italy.

-- In February, a subsidiary of AES entered an agreement to purchase all of the
energy assets of Thermo Ecotek Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thermo
Electron Corporation of Waltham, Massachusetts for $195 million.

-- In January, AES announced the start of construction of the $300 million AES
Wolf Hollow power plant at a site in Granbury, Texas.

-- In January, a subsidiary of AES acquired a majority interest in a 290MW
barge-mounted natural-gas-fired electric generating business in Lagos, Nigeria.


-- In January, AES Huntington Beach submitted a proposal to the California
Energy Commission to restart two retired gas-fired units that will add an
additional 450 megawatts of generation in the electricity-strapped state of
California.

-- In January, AES announced the purchase of an additional 39% ownership
interest in Hidroelectrica Alicura, a 1000 MW hydro plant in Argentina.

-- In January, AES announced that it had successfully completed its offer to
exchange all American Depositary Shares of Gener S.A. for AES common stock.

AES is a leading global power company comprised of competitive generation, distribution and retail supply businesses in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech. Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela.

The company's generating assets include interests in one hundred and eighty one facilities totaling over 60 gigawatts of capacity. AES's electricity distribution network has over 920,000 km of conductor and associated rights of way and sells over 126,000 gigawatt hours per year to over 18 million end-use customers.

In addition, through its various retail electricity supply businesses, the company sells electricity to over 154,000 end-use customers.

AES is dedicated to providing electricity worldwide in a socially responsible way.

This news release may include forward-looking statements. Actual events and results may differ materially from those projected. Factors that could affect actual results are discussed in AES's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and readers are encouraged to read those filings to learn more about the risk factors associated with AES's businesses.

For more general information visit our web site at www.aesc.com or contact investor relations at [e-mail]. The list aes-pr-announce is an automated mailing list and can be found on the investing page of our web site. Those who subscribe to this list will receive updates when AES issues a press release.