Constellation Power Source Selects SWANTECH System for Condition Monitoring in West Virginia Power Plant; SWANview to Monitor Gas Turbines and Water Injection Pumps At Big Sandy Peaker.

Business Editors

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2002

Constellation Power Source, an affiliate of the Constellation Energy Group, has selected SWANTECH's SWANview(TM) Desktop System to monitor the health of gas turbine engines as well as water injection pumps at the Big Sandy Peaker in Neal, West Virginia. Constellation, an integrated energy company based in Baltimore, owns energy-related businesses, including a North American wholesale power marketing and merchant generation business and the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), a regulated energy delivery company in Central Maryland. Big Sandy Peaker, brought online in August, 2001, is a 300-megawatt natural gas-fired peaking plant that provides electricity to wholesale customers during times of peak energy consumption.

Mission Critical Gas Turbines and Water Injection Pumps

The SWANview Desktop System monitors two gas turbine engines and two water injection pumps in operation at the plant. This equipment is considered mission critical and its operation is vital to the energy output of the facility. According to Russ Bell, project manager, the benefits of using Stress Wave Analysis (SWAN(TM)) technology are multiple. "We are using the SWANview System to monitor the health of plant machinery as one aspect of our on-going plant maintenance program. We are continuously overseeing equipment health to ensure maximum efficiency and eliminate the risk of unscheduled maintenance or downtime. Also, SWAN technology remains highly effective in the plant in spite of the high noise environment and the natural vibration of the equipment while in operation. Further, it is proving to be easy to learn and simple to operate."

"The SWANview System is ideal for monitoring mission critical equipment such as gas turbines and circulating pumps in energy production facilities," noted Joseph Carpenter, president and CEO of SWANTECH. "SWAN technology is able to provide continuous online monitoring that is not affected by high noise or the natural motion of equipment. It remains very sensitive to any shock or friction events occurring in a machine and enables the operator to pinpoint the source of damage, enabling corrective action before secondary damage or catastrophic failure. Many companies are using this technology in preventive maintenance programs in the energy industry."

Stress Wave Analysis or SWAN technology is a patented instrumentation technique used to measure friction, shock and dynamic load transfer between moving parts in operating machinery including turbines and pumps. SWAN provides an electronic and quantifiable means of detecting and analyzing sounds that travel through a machine structure at ultrasonic frequencies. By measuring shock and friction, SWAN detects both wear and location of potential damage at the earliest stages of damage and can trend the progression of a defect over time to precisely predict machine failure. The technology also pinpoints the source of damage at the component level.

Two externally mounted high-temperature sensors capture data on the gas turbines and two regular temperature sensors capture data from the water injection pumps. The SWANview monitors all of the sensors from one desktop location. Bell says that this is an initial evaluation phase, and if SWANview performs as expected, the company will consider plant-wide deployment and installations at other sites.

About Constellation Energy Group

Based in Baltimore, Constellation Energy Group owns energy-related businesses, including a North American wholesale power marketing and merchant generation business and the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), a regulated energy delivery company in Central Maryland. BGE provides service to more than 1.1 million electric customers and approximately 600,000 natural gas customers in Central Maryland. Constellation currently provides wholesale electricity to more than a dozen utilities in New York and New England. At year-end 2001, Constellation Energy Group reported revenues of $3.9 billion and assets of $14.1 billion.

SWANTECH is dedicated to the innovation, design and development of diagnostic tools that detect even slight friction and shock events that occur between contact surfaces in operating machines. SWANTECH delivers the power of precise machine condition information with patented Stress Wave Analysis (SWAN(TM)) technology. SWAN detects Stress Wave Energy and enables the separation of these high-frequency stress waves from the much lower frequency range of operating machinery vibration and audible noise. This process detects flaws and problems well before other technologies including vibration and lubrication analysis and provides condition monitoring solutions that enable users to intervene before secondary machine damage or catastrophic failure occurs. SWANTECH solutions contribute to a lower total cost of operation and a greater return on assets managed.