Dominion Energy Clearinghouse Provides One-Stop Energy Shopping for Wholesale Customers.

Business Editors

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2000

Dominion, one of the nation's largest energy producers, announces the formation of the Dominion Energy Clearinghouse, a one-stop shop where wholesale customers can go for energy commodity pricing and services.

The Dominion Energy Clearinghouse buys and sells electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, coal and emission allowances, and provides a full range of asset management services. It also provides customer service support, capacity, storage and balancing services along interstate pipelines throughout the Northeast.

"With the convergence of electricity and natural gas markets, wholesale customers now have unique opportunities to optimize their assets," said Thomas F. Farrell II, chief executive officer of Dominion Energy. "We have the expertise and resources to bring home this value."

The Dominion Energy Clearinghouse will be headquartered in Richmond, Va., and will concentrate on the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states (known as the MAIN to Maine region), where about 40 percent of the nation's energy is consumed.

"We bring to the marketplace the liquidity customers require to efficiently manage their energy needs," said Paul D. Koonce, senior vice president of Dominion Energy and head of the Dominion Energy Clearinghouse. "The merger of Dominion and Consolidated Natural Gas Company -- a fully-integrated electricity company with a fully-integrated natural gas company -- gave us a staff with a variety of skills. We have upgraded our energy modeling and risk management skills, and now can bring added value to our customers."

Koonce said the Dominion Energy Clearinghouse has already aided customers in several areas, including the creation of summer call options for the electricity market, peaking services for local distribution companies and providing emission allowances for power plant development.

The Dominion Energy Clearinghouse offers a full portfolio of energy financial products and participates in TradeSpark, an electronic marketplace for professional traders of natural gas and electricity.

"Companies can successfully manage the risk of purchasing energy commodities at fluctuating prices if they understand and use modern financial products," said Richard Thatcher, vice president of Market Services for Dominion Energy. "We can make financial products less complex and more profitable for our customers."

The Dominion Energy Clearinghouse is also working with the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech to research energy modeling and optimization, and plans further academic alliances aimed at moving the latest business concepts from the laboratory to the marketplace.

The wholesale electric team concentrates on the MAIN, ECAR, MACC, SPP and SERC regions, as well as the Hub Markets of PJM, Cinergy, TVA, Entergy, NEPOOL and New York. It buys and sells electric power hourly, daily and monthly, and helps customers develop hedging strategies. The electric team can be reached at 804-273-4466.

The wholesale gas team provides natural gas transportation and other services in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Mid-Continent areas. It buys and sells natural gas daily, seasonally and annually, and provides financial products for customers, as well as managing the hedging strategy for Dominion's oil and natural gas production. The gas team can be reached at 804-273-4437.

The coal, fuel oil and emissions team buys and sells coal and emission allowances, provides hedging for coal purchases and sales, and provides coal procurement management and transportation logistics. It focuses on the central and northern Appalachian coal markets, and has experience with the CSX, Norfolk and Southern railroads and private railcar fleets. The Dominion Energy Clearinghouse manages a 1,300-car rail fleet. The team also buys and sells No. 2 oil, No. 6 oil and vehicle fuel for industrial customers. The coal, fuel oil and emissions team can be contacted at 804-273-4110.

Customers can contact the Clearinghouse through our Web site at www.dom.com/operations/clearinghouse.

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a production capability of 2.7 trillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy per day. The company has a power generation portfolio of more than 19,000 megawatts, which is expected to grow to more than 28,000 megawatts by 2005. Dominion is one of the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in North America, with 2.8 trillion cubic feet of equivalent reserves. Dominion also serves 3.8 million retail natural gas and electric customers. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.