ConnexT(r) Wins Major Design Software Contract Award From Pacific Gas & Electric.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 14, 1998--

The Nation's Second Largest Investor-Owned Utility to Automate

Gas and Electric Facilities Design for New Subdivisions

ConnexT(r) announced today that Pacific Gas & Electric Company (NYSE: PGE), the nation's second largest investor-owned utility, named ConnexT as its sole-source provider of software that automates utility electrical and gas design for new residential underground subdivisions.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company selected ConnexT's Automatic Electric Plat Design(tm) (AEPD) software after an exhaustive year-long pilot study.

ConnexT's AEPD allows utilities to rapidly and accurately design underground residential distribution networks in a fraction of the time and cost, by using patented GIS and artificial intelligence technology. Other utility customers of ConnexT report over 90 percent reductions in design time and 6 percent to 18 percent reductions in construction costs as a result of using AEPD software.

The award follows a series of other recent AEPD selections including Virginia Power, Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Nevada Power, and Carolina Power & Light and secures ConnexT's leadership role in the industry. Ten other major US and Canadian utilities adopted AEPD as their standard for design in 1997.

"We are exceedingly pleased that Pacific Gas & Electric Company has chosen ConnexT as their company-wide standard for new electric and gas design," Maura O'Neill, President and CEO of Seattle-based ConnexT, said. "This adoption goes a long way in establishing ConnexT's leadership in setting the industry standard for powerful, intuitive and adaptable software solutions. It gives utilities and developers the tools needed to significantly reduce costs and become more competitive. It is a win for utility shareholders, union employees, real estate developers, and customers. As utilities are struggling to find cost reductions and make quality improvements, this is the type of software that will characterize the new competitive era."

Dirk Koops, distribution engineer for Pacific Gas & Electric Company, said the decision to select ConnexT's AEPD software and aggressively adopt the program was wholeheartedly endorsed by Engineers and Scientists of California Union Local 20 (ESCU). ESCU represents more than 1,200 engineers and utility workers at PG&E.

"The biggest achievement with this product was the challenging partnership between Pacific Gas & Electric, the ESCU union membership, and ConnexT," Koops said. "Our version of AEPD incorporated Pacific Gas & Electric Company's requirements, which were based on valuable input given to ConnexT by the actual employees at PG&E who do the work. The net result is a product which follows our costing methods and design standards, is easy to use, and is in line with our partnership success factors."

The contract award includes site licenses for as many as 200 users as well as comprehensive training and support. "AEPD is the only product on the market that allows engineers to quickly evaluate multiple design with different design parameters," O'Neill said. "Giving engineers the ability to create `what-if' scenarios and the power to amend complete design variables with a few keystrokes makes AEPD a very potent tool for any utility. ConnexT's AEPD software advances the capabilities of utility designers as dramatically as spreadsheet software helped accountants."

The rapid growth of ConnexT's AEPD software among utilities is due to its competitive advantages. "The bottom line is AEPD is saving our clients a lot of money. Using our AEPD product typically saves about ten percent in underground construction costs," O'Neill said. "Considering the cost of providing underground electric utilities for a single residence is about $1,500 and there are one million new homes expected to be built this year alone, AEPD can create an immense savings for utilities and their customers (over $150 million annually)."

ConnexT's AEPD software typically provides enough savings that clients see a full return on investment within the first 12 months.

ConnexT's AEPD is the only product that offers full compatibility with AM/FM cartography products, including ESRI's ARC/INFO, SmallWorld, Intergraph and work management programs such as Logica's WMIS and Miner & Miner's JPDE. ConnexT's AEPD is available for UNIX and NT platforms.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company is the San Francisco-based regulated utility subsidiary of the PG&E Corporation. It is one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy utilities, serving nearly 13 million people in Northern and Central California. The utility's 70,000-square-mile service area stretches from Eureka in the north to Bakersfield in the south, and from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Sierra Nevadas in the east.

ConnexT was one of the first energy services software companies to integrate metering and pricing, distribution systems, and customer information services. Examples of its services include automated meter reading, pricing options, consumption warnings and notification of outages, new consumer subscription services, and a myriad of non-utility products that will offer new revenues for utilities and power marketers.

ConnexT is a privately held company with major products that include AEPD(tm), OMS(tm), OneBill(tm), ConsumerLink(tm), OutAlert(tm), UseWatch(tm), InVision(tm), and Forte(tm). ConnexT is located at 1301 Fifth Ave., Suite 1900, Seattle, Wash., 98101. The company may be reached by phone at 206/521-2100, via fax at 206/521-2400, or on the World Wide Web at www.connext.com . -0-

NT is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corp.

Intergraph is a registered trademark of the Intergraph Corp.

Logica and WMIS are registered trademarks of Logica Ltd.

Miner & Miner and JPDE are registered trademarks of Miner & Miner

UNIX is a registered trademark of Santa Cruz Operations

ConnexT, OutAlert, UseWatch, InVision, Forte, AEPD, OMS, and ConsumerLink are registered trademarks of ConnexT Corp.

SmallWorld is a registered trademark of SmallWorld Corp.

ESRI and ARC/INFO are registered trademarks of ESRI Corp.

CONTACT: ConnexT

Dale Christensen, 206/521-2393

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