GPU Settlement Talks to Continue.

MORRISTOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 1999--With today's New Jersey Board of Public Utilities scheduled deadline about to pass, GPU Energy has announced that settlement negotiations with parties involved in the company's stranded cost and unbundling case will continue.

"We have notified the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that although we have not reached a settlement at this time, we will continue the negotiation process," said Mike Filippone, director of rates for New Jersey.

GPU Energy officials and representatives from intervening parties have been engaged in settlement talks since March 11. The negotiations are aimed at settling a number of issues concerning GPU Energy's restructuring that were outlined in the New Jersey Energy Deregulation Bill signed into law last month.

"Our goal is to reach a fair and balanced settlement. In extending the negotiations, we hope to do just that," Filippone noted.

GPU Energy is the trade name for the three domestic utility subsidiaries of GPU, Inc. The GPU Energy companies, Jersey Central Power & Light, Metropolitan Edison and Pennsylvania Electric, serve more than two million electric customers in an area encompassing about half the land areas in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.