ALSTOM ESCA to Deliver New Web-Based System At Electric Reliability Council of Texas — ERCOT; Andersen Consulting Team to Upgrade Texas Electricity Market

Business Wire, Sept 12, 2000

Business Writers, Energy Editors

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

ALSTOM ESCA Corporation (NYSE:ALS) today announced that it has teamed with Andersen Consulting to provide an advanced market and operations system for both wholesale and retail electricity markets for Texas.

Andersen Consulting will lead the development and implementation of the infrastructure required for a reliable and robust competitive electricity market in Texas. ALSTOM ESCA will facilitate the ERCOT markets through the provision of its product e-terra market(TM), which manages the scheduling, pricing, dispatch, market clearance, congestion management, web portal, and energy management functions.

"We are pleased that ALSTOM ESCA is part of the solution provided by the Andersen Consulting team for the Texas retail market," said Sam Jones, Executive Vice President and COO of ERCOT.

The new web-based system will facilitate ERCOT's market participants -- electric utilities and participants -- in marketing their services to energy traders, and industrial and residential customers. "This new system significantly impacts the restructured electricity market. It assists customers in managing their energy services," said Russ McRae, Account Executive at ALSTOM ESCA. "We are happy that Andersen Consulting selected ALSTOM ESCA to supply the system for ERCOT's new wholesale market."

Andersen Consulting, RER, and LODESTAR will deliver the registration, billing, settlement, and load profiling functions, which will interface with ALSTOM ESCA's package, as well as a historical data warehouse archive and retrieval system.

ERCOT

ERCOT is one of the ten Regional Reliability Councils in the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Organization. ERCOT represents a bulk electric system located totally within the state of Texas and serves about 85 percent of Texas's electrical load. ERCOT membership currently consists of nine Cooperatives and River Authorities, six municipals owning generation or transmission, four investor-owned utilities, four independent power producers, 26 power marketers and transmission-dependent utilities.

Andersen Consulting

Andersen Consulting is an $8.9 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients create their future. The firm works with clients from a wide range of industries to bring about far-reaching change by aligning their people, processes, and technology with their strategy. Andersen Consulting has approximately 65,000 people in 48 countries. Its Internet homepage is www.ac.com.

ALSTOM ESCA Corporation

ALSTOM ESCA, based in Bellevue, Washington, pioneered the development of product-based, real-time control systems for electric utilities and markets its products to utilities and other industries worldwide. ALSTOM ESCA is a subsidiary of ALSTOM, a world leader in the energy and transport infrastructure markets.

ALSTOM is the global specialist in energy and transport infrastructure. The Company serves the energy market through its activities in the fields of power generation, power transmission and distribution, power conversion and electrical contracting and the transport market through its activities in rail and marine. Following the full integration of the power generation activities, ALSTOM today has annual sales in excess of 20 billion of euros and employs more than 140,000 people in over 70 countries.

The Company is listed on the New York (NYSE:ALS), Paris, and London stock exchanges.