EUCG Names Best-Performing Fossil Power Plants at Boston Meeting

    BOSTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Energy's (NYSE:   LNT)
 Dubuque Plant and Duke Power's (NYSE:   DUK) Marshall Station took top honors
 for EUCG's "Best Performer" power plant award at the organization's Annual
 Fall Conference.  EUCG is a global association of energy and electric utility
 professionals who discuss current and emerging industry issues, share best
 practices and exchange data for benchmarking purposes.
     Runners-up included Southern Company's  (NYSE:   SO) Miller Plant, American
 Electric Power's (NYSE:   AEP) Northeastern Station, and Alliant Energy's M.L.
 Kapp and Nelson Dewey power plants.
     Winners were chosen from a large dataset of plant-level cost and
 performance data submitted by EUCG member utilities.  EUCG's independent
 third-party contractor analyzed the data and then rank-ordered the plants to
 determine the top three performers for both the large and small plant award
 categories.  Plant performance was gauged on critical performance measures
 such as equivalent availability, forced outage rate and unplanned outage
 factors.  EUCG member companies in the U.S., Canada and Europe submitted data
 to EUCG for consideration in this year's Best Performer awards.
     The fall conference awards are based on one-year plant performance between
 January and December of the previous year.  During EUCG's annual spring
 conference, the organization recognizes best-performing plants over a five-
 year period.
     "The selection of 'Best Performer' plants continues to be a highly popular
 activity among our members," said James Patrick of Ameren (NYSE:   AEE), who
 serves as chairperson for EUCG's Fossil Productivity Committee.  "The award
 winners have much to be proud of -- given they were selected from such a large
 population of potential plants.  Their performance is truly elite."
      Large Plant Best Performer:  Marshall Station (Duke Energy)
     Duke Energy's Marshall Steam Station, located in Catawba County, N.C., is
 a four-unit, 2,110-megawatt coal plants whose first unit went online in 1965.
 Subsequent units became operational in 1966, 1969 and 1970.   Plant Manager
 Tom Rawe described the belief system that led to his plant's success with this
 year's EUCG award:  "At the Marshall Station, we stress processes and
 procedures consistent with our goal of running from planned outage to planned
 outage.  We believe plant reliability is our most important product."  Rawe
 added, "Our forced outage rate was only 1.57% during 2004, and we believe we
 can improve on that in years to come, and do it cost effectively."
     The Southern Company's Miller plant, a four-unit, 2,742-megawatt coal
 plant, took second place in the large plant category.  American Electric
 Power's two-unit, 935-megawatt Northeastern 3-4 plant was awarded third place.
 
     Small Plant Best Performer:  Dubuque Plant (Alliant Energy)
     Alliant Energy's Dubuque Plant, located in Dubuque, Iowa, along the
 Mississippi River, is a 83-megawatt coal and natural gas plant whose units
 currently in operation went online as early as 1929 (Unit 2) and as late as
 1959 (Unit 4).   "Our experienced and seasoned workforce is the main reason
 our plant performs so well," said Plant Manager Craig Crawford.  "The
 employees are dedicated to reducing and preventing unplanned outages.  Our
 people deserve all the credit."
     Alliant's M.L. Kapp (250 megawatts) and Nelson Dewey (200 megawatts) also
 took second and third place in the small coal category.   "It's unusual for a
 single company to sweep an award category," said Patrick.  "That's only
 happened one other time, so Alliant must be doing something pretty special."
     EUCG will hold its 2006 spring conference in Anaheim, Calif.  All energy
 professionals are invited.  Interested parties should visit the EUCG website
 (http://www.eucg.org) for more information.
 
     About EUCG:  EUCG is a global association of energy and electric utility
 professionals who discuss current and emerging industry issues, share best
 practices, and exchange data for benchmarking purposes. The association is
 organized into five (5) separate committees that represent specific utility
 functions:  Transmission & Distribution (T&D), Fossil Plants, Hydro Plants,
 Nuclear Plants, and Information Technology (IT) departments.  Members attend
 semi-annual conferences that focus on strategic planning, maintenance
 practices, operations management, outage management and various other aspects
 of the electric utility business.  Membership is open to all utility companies
 and professionals worldwide.  Interested parties should contact Pat Kovalesky
 -- EUCG Executive Director, at 1-623-572-4140.  Email:  eucgexec@quixnet.net.
 Website:  http://www.eucg.org .
 
 

SOURCE  EUCG