Allegheny Energy Supply Teams Up With the Borough of Sewickley to Offer Savings on Electricity.

GREENSBURG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--

Borough of Sewickley residents and small businesses are the most recent Allegheny County, Pa., consumers to enjoy additional savings on their electric bills through the Allegheny Energy Supply Electric Choice Community Program.

Depending on how many of the Borough of Sewickley's 1,800 households sign up for the program, average residential customers could save as much as 6.63 percent on their monthly electric bills with the incentive-based aggregation plan offered by Allegheny Energy Supply -- already the lowest-priced electric generation supplier in the Pittsburgh area. Small commercial customers also have the opportunity for savings with Allegheny Energy Supply.

"With a price of 4.1 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), Allegheny Energy Supply already offers the greatest savings for customers of Duquesne Light," said Kevin Flannery, Municipal Manager for the Borough of Sewickley. "But, by joining together, a small group - like the Borough of Sewickley - was able to leverage its buying power and negotiate an even lower rate for our residents. That's the beauty of competition in the electric utility industry."

In Sewickley's program, if more than 340 residents sign up, average residential customers will pay 4.0 cents per kWh for their electricity. If more than 900 sign up, the price decreases to 3.95 cents per kWh. Once the program is determined, it will be guaranteed for at least on full year of electric service from Allegheny Energy Supply.

Sewickley residents will receive a letter this week from the Borough explaining the program. To participate, they must return the postage-paid reply card they receive in that mailing no later than July 30. Allegheny Energy Supply will then calculate the additional price reduction based on the number of participants.

"When Allegheny Energy Supply presented its Electric Choice Community Program to us, the benefits for Sewickley residents were obvious," said Flannery. "We had studied the offers made by various electric generation suppliers, but we believe this program made it simple and easy to do - at a lower price. In fact, the Borough was so pleased with their pricing and service, we switched all of our municipal accounts to Allegheny Energy Supply."

Michael Dandrea, Director, Retail Mass Markets for Allegheny Energy Supply, applauded Sewickley officials for helping to make the process of selecting an electric generation supplier easier.

"Sewickley officials are to be commended for their efforts," said Dandrea. "They have done an excellent job of simplifying the Electric Choice selection process for their residents and adding credibility to this important purchase. We are happy to be working with the Borough of Sewickley on this program," he said. "And we invite opportunities to offer similar programs to other townships and municipalities in Pennsylvania."

Dandrea noted that Sewickley residents who sign up with Allegheny Energy Supply will also have the benefit of the company's Energizing Education(TM) program, a unique business/education partnership that provides free educational tools to state-accredited schools in certain areas of Pennsylvania.

"Energizing Education works very simply," said Dandrea. "When Duquesne Light or Penn Power customers sign up with us, they immediately begin generating Power Points based on their electricity use. The customer can then nominate a school to receive those Power Points, which can be redeemed for free state-of-the-art educational equipment, like computers, TVs, VCRs, and more."

Sewickley residents who have already selected Allegheny Energy Supply as their electric generation supplier will be eligible for the additional savings provided by the Electric Choice Community Program. Customers who have selected another electric generation supplier can switch to Allegheny Energy Supply to take advantage of the savings.

For more information about the Electric Choice Community Program, contact Allegheny Energy Supply toll-free at 1-888-AE Choice (1-888-232-4642).

The program with Sewickley is Allegheny Energy Supply's fourth in a continuing series of successful community aggregation programs. Residents of Hampton and Collier Townships, as well as the Municipality of Monroeville, are already participating through their respective programs.

Allegheny Energy Supply, an energy supply business, markets competitive electric generation to retail and wholesale customers throughout the region. Headquartered in Greensburg, Pa., it is a division of a Pennsylvania subsidiary of Allegheny Energy, Inc. For more information about Allegheny Energy Supply, visit our web site at www.alleghenyenergy.com.