Contact: Edward Conaway
361-972-7643
ecconaway@stpegs.com

Wadsworth, Texas -- March 12, 2002 -- The South Texas Project (STP) Unit 1 reactor generated more electricity than any other reactor in the U.S. in 2001. With the exception of a scheduled 21-day shutdown for refueling, the unit ran continuously last year and produced 10.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity.

"We sustained a 94 percent capacity factor in Unit 1 in a year with a refueling outage, something that was unheard of in the industry only a few years ago," said Gary Parkey, vice president of Generation. "This accomplishment is a credit to the STP team and the efforts we have made over the past few years to operate safely with reliable performance and short refueling outages," Parkey said.

STP Unit 1 not only led all 103 U.S. reactors in generation, but also placed eighth in production among the 433 reactors worldwide. In addition, STP had the low-est average fuel cost of all power plants in the U.S. last year, at four-tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour.

STP is owned by Reliant Energy, American Electric Power's subsidiary Central Power and Light, City Public Service of San Antonio, and Austin Energy. The plant is operated by STP Nuclear Operating Company and produces 2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve more than one million homes.