Award-Winning Carneys Point Generating Plant Marks Five-Year Anniversary; Looks Ahead to Promising Future.

CARNEYS POINT, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 1999--

Five years ago, PG&E Generating's (PG&E Gen) Carneys Point Generating Plant became the first coal-fired electric generating plant to be permitted and built in New Jersey in 25 years. Today the plant celebrated its five-year operating anniversary. To commemorate the milestone, PG&E Gen hosted a reception at the plant, attended by employees, community neighbors and leaders.

PG&E Gen President and COO P. Chrisman (Chris) Iribe congratulated General Manager Virg Sabin for reaching this important operating milestone and said that the bulk of the credit goes to the plant's employees. "Carneys Point Generating has provided outstanding performance for its utility customer Conectiv with clean, reliable electricity for the past five years," Iribe said. "It is a testament to the skill and hard work of our employees, as well as to the technology built into the plant."

The Carneys Point plant is one of the cleanest pulverized coal-fired electric generating facilities in the United States. Even before completing its first year of operation, the plant received Power magazine's 1994 "Powerplant of the Year" award for becoming the first commercial pulverized coal-fired power plant in the United States to employ selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions. After five years of commercial operation, SCR technology is now seen as the most effective process in the industry for reducing NOX emissions and is the industry standard.

During the development process, however, the project team had to overcome many obstacles. Residents in the already highly industrialized community expressed concern about air and water emissions, noise pollution and traffic disruption from coal delivery.

"By choosing to employ leading-edge emission control technology like SCR and other modern environmental systems, we were able to win community support and trust for the project as well as meet state regulators' objectives," said PG&E Gen Vice President for Environmental Affairs Mark Carney. "At the time of the project's inception, state regulators were seeking low emission rates for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions for all fossil-fueled facilities," he said. "Using these modern environmental controls helped PG&E Gen bridge an important gap with local residents and at the same time, benefit the environment by setting new emissions standards for all fossil-fueled power plants across the country."

The plant also uses other emissions control technologies, including a spray dryer absorption (SDA) system, which is designed to remove more than 90 percent of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. According to Sabin, Carneys Point Generating's emissions levels are significantly below the average emissions from existing fossil-fueled power plants in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as across the country.

In addition to its operating anniversary, the Carneys Point plant is also celebrating significant safety accomplishments. "In March, the plant reached five years and more than 500,000 safe hours worked without a lost-time accident," Sabin said, noting that this safety record was an extraordinary achievement for this type of facility.

According to company representatives, the plant's stewardship does not stop with its operating performance. "PG&E Gen's steadfast commitment to operating excellence, environmental stewardship and corporate responsibility has allowed us to celebrate the many successes of this plant with our employees and community friends," said Sabin.

Carneys Point has been actively involved in the local community. During the past several years, the plant has consistently supported such charitable organizations as the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes, as well as local youth and education programs. In 1996, the plant, in conjunction with neighboring sister plant, Logan Generating, began a sponsorship of the South Jersey Summer Institute for Educators. "This sponsorship, in addition to our other charitable contributions, has been a great way to give back to the local community, which has been a wonderful base of support for us during the last five years, and we hope, for the next 25 years," Sabin said.

Guests at the anniversary event were treated to a traveling electricity show by the world-famous Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Children and adults enjoyed several electric demonstrations at the celebration.

The Carneys Point Generating Plant, located on the grounds of the DuPont Chambers Works facility in Carneys Point Township, N.J., is a 260-megawatt, pulverized-coal cogeneration facility. It provides up to 184 megawatts of electricity -- enough for 184,000 homes -- to Conectiv and additional electricity to DuPont. Carneys Point also supplies the Chambers Works with all of its process steam.

PG&E Generating (PG&E Gen) is one of the nation's leading power generation companies. Through affiliates, PG&E Gen owns and manages a portfolio of reliable, efficient electric generation that exceeds 7,700 megawatts of generating capacity. PG&E Gen is the competitive generation business of PG&E Corporation a national energy services holding company based in San Francisco whose businesses encompass power generation, natural gas pipelines and liquids, wholesale energy trading, retail energy sales and regulated utility service. For more information about PG&E Corporation and PG&E Gen, please visit our web sites at www.pge-corp.com and www.gen.pge.com.

PG&E Generating (PG&E Gen) and any other company referenced herein that uses the PG&E name or logo are not the same company as Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the regulated California utility. Neither PG&E Gen nor these other referenced companies are regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. Customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company do not have to buy products from these companies in order to continue to receive quality regulated services from the utility.