Aquila Energy Wins Large Contract to Supply Natural Gas to Chicago's ComEd.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 1999--

Aquila Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UtiliCorp United (NYSE: UCU), recently agreed to supply Chicago's ComEd with up to 625,000 decatherms of natural gas a day, one of the largest single natural gas contracts ever arranged in the energy industry.

The natural gas will be used by ComEd to fuel its peaking facilities in the greater Chicago area, principally as swing gas to the Collins Generating Station, the largest gas/oil fueled generating plant in the country. Peaking facilities are used when demand for electricity increases due to extremely hot or cold weather. Should ComEd need all the 625,000 decatherms of natural gas each day, it would provide enough electricity to heat or cool 17,000 homes.

Aquila Energy is a major energy marketer in the Chicago area, supplying natural gas to area utilities, large and small industrial concerns, and commercial establishments such as restaurants and apartment buildings.

Nationwide, Aquila is ranked as the second largest wholesaler of natural gas and third largest in electric power. Aquila serves more than 15,000 industrial, utility and commercial customers across the United States and Canada, marketing an average of 10.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter of 1999, and a total of 121 million megawatt-hours of electricity for the year ended December 31, 1998.

Aquila's parent, UtiliCorp United, is an international energy company with more than 4.5 million customers across the U.S. and in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. At March 31, 1999, the company had $6.4 billion in assets and 12-month sales of $13.5 billion.

ComEd is engaged principally in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to retail and wholesale customers. ComEd provides service to more than 3.4 million customers across Northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

Incorporated in 1994 and based in Chicago, Unicom Corporation (NYSE: UCM) is a public company dedicated to meeting the energy needs of residential, commercial, industrial and wholesale customers. With nearly 16,000 employees and $7 billion in revenues, Unicom Corporation is the parent holding company of ComEd, its principal subsidiary, and Unicom Enterprises, Inc. (UEI), the umbrella organization of its unregulated subsidiaries.