Conuar, a Perez Companc-Controlled Company, Signs as First South American Distributor of Capstone MicroTurbines.

Business Editors & Energy Writers

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2001

Conuar, a company controlled by Pecom Energia, led by the group Perez Companc (www.pecom.com.ar) (NYSE:PC) (AR:PC), a $1.3 billion Argentina-based independent energy company, has entered into a nine-month initial distribution agreement with Capstone Turbine Corp. (www.microturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) to sell, install and service Capstone MicroTurbine power systems throughout several Latin American countries.

Conuar is the first South American distribution source authorized by Capstone, and is taking immediate delivery of six units of its 26-unit initial purchase commitment. In this way, Conuar moves on its plans related to the development of activities involving new technologies, particularly in the field of distributed generation.

Distributed generation systems like the Capstone MicroTurbine are supplements to centralized power plants and the electric grid, producing power at or very near the sites where it is used. It complements and reduces demand on the current infrastructure, improving power reliability and quality in the electricity grid.

Both Conuar and Capstone Turbine see this nine-month agreement as a time to seed the market, and expect unit sales to grow substantially after this term.

"Conuar will exploit the value propositions of the Capstone MicroTurbine system, providing turnkey energy solutions to fill the needs of customers, combining microturbines with heat recovery units for combined-heat-and-power and chilling applications as well as a variety of distributed generation applications where the electric distribution grid is either inadequate or nonexistent," said Alberto Andino, Conuar chief executive officer.

"We intend to deploy these ultra-low-emission, ultra-low- maintenance systems in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay."

"Pecom Energia companies are leaders in the South American market in a variety of energy-based industries. Their commitment to economically beneficial environmental protection fits well with our very-low-emission Capstone MicroTurbine systems," said Dr. Ake Almgren, Capstone president and CEO.

Capstone Turbine (www.microturbine.com) (Nasdaq:CPST) -- winner of Financial Times Energy's (www.ftenergy.com) 2000 Global Energy Award for Most Innovative Commercial Technology -- is a leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems. In 1998, Capstone was the first to offer commercial power products utilizing microturbine technology, the result of more than 10 years of focused research.

Worldwide, more than a thousand commercial production Capstone MicroTurbine systems serve, among others, the following applications:

-- Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs): onboard generation;

-- Resource recovery: converting oilfield and biomass waste gases into
electricity;

-- Micro-cogeneration: combined heat/power/chilling solutions;

-- The 9s market: power quality and reliability.

Pecom Energia leads a group of companies engaged mainly in the energy sector and is the only independent energy company in Latin America. The business operations include oil and gas production and transportation; refining and petrochemicals; and power generation, transmission and distribution, as well as forestry activities, across several Latin American countries.