DQE Chooses National Water & Power Technologies to Satisfy Complex Billing Needs.

Business Editors

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 2000

Billing services organization's clients will use new-generation

solution to manage customer information

National Water & Power Technologies, Inc. (NWPT) and DQE, Inc. (DQE) have announced an agreement whereby DQE will use the NextGen customer information system (CIS) to deliver billing and related services to DQE's water and wastewater utility, AquaSource. DQE's decision to use NWPT's CIS was made after having reviewed numerous possible CIS solutions. Vice President of Corporate Services, William DeLeo, states why NWPT was the right choice for DQE: "A services organization must position itself to support the billing requirements for a myriad of players within the utility and energy industry, including regulated utilities, energy marketers, municipals, and nation-wide utilities, as in the case of AquaSource. Therefore, our CIS must support all these needs and be able to do so for multiple companies within the same information repository. We conducted a comprehensive review for the right product and are most confident we found a winning solution with NextGen and a willing partner with NWPT. In fact, we believe NextGen is the best solution available with the power, flexibility, affordability, and scalability to meet the needs of our business going forward." But there was more to DQE's selection of NextGen then the merits of the software, "In addition to our positive assessment of the NextGen solution, the NWPT team earned our confidence and respect throughout the course of our selection process."

The agreement with DQE establishes NWPT, a start-up CIS software vendor, as a credible player in the CIS market. NWPT president Pat Langan views the signing of the DQE agreement as a major milestone for NWPT, "We were hoping to attract a marquis client to help us introduce NextGen to the marketplace, but partnering with DQE has exceeded even our own expectations. DQE's business is such that its CIS must support complex functionality, including multi-commodity, multi-company, multi-receivable and multi-jurisdiction. DQE's selection of NextGen validates that our data model and flexible architecture can meet the complex requirements of sophisticated companies that want to position themselves to compete in a dynamic industry."

NWPT will work with DQE to initially implement NextGen for AquaSource's customer base by July 2000. AquaSource's entire customer base will be migrated to the new system over the following 6 to 8 months.

DQE is a multi-utility delivery and services company, headquartered in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, with active business ventures and partnerships throughout the United States and Canada. DQE subsidiaries include AquaSource Inc., which acquires, develops, and manages water and waste-water assets; Duquesne Light, a Pittsburgh based electric distribution company; DQE Financial, a financial-services company that makes long-term investments and provides financing to both DQE and other firms in the energy and utility markets; DQE Enterprises, an energy, communications, and E-commerce business; DQE Energy Services, a diversified services company offering a wide range of energy outsourcing solutions; and DQE Systems, a propane, gas, and telecommunications delivery company.

National Water and Power Technologies is a CIS software provider headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NWPT's NextGen solution is a flexible CIS with an architecture and data model that allows companies to configure NextGen to meet their specific needs, whether they are a utility, a marketer, a billing service bureau, or a hybrid company. NWPT offers NextGen as a supported software license and as an application service. For more information regarding NextGen, contact Dennis McMaster at [phone] or send e-mail to [e-mail].