SUEZ Energy North America Affiliate Acquires Significant Stake in New York City’s Astoria Energy Plant

HOUSTON, May 22 /PRNewswire/ — SUEZ Energy North America (SENA) today announced the acquisition of a 30.45% equity interest in the 575-megawatt (MW) Astoria Energy Power Plant from SCS Energy. Primarily fueled by clean burning natural gas, the facility began operating in 2006 and is located in the Queens Borough of New York City, less than five miles from Manhattan and within the New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) Zone J market. It is the most recent power plant built in New York City. The majority of Astoria Energy’s energy and capacity, 500-MW, is being purchased by ConEdison of New York, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities serving more than 9 million residents, under a Power Purchase Agreement. A second phase for a 500 MW unit is in advanced development.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080522/LATH519)

“New York City is a high-value market with high barriers to entry for new generation,” said Zin Smati, president and chief executive officer of SENA. “Acquiring a sizable interest in a newly-built, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly facility in one of the nation’s largest deregulated electricity markets is an important step in the expansion of our power generation portfolio in the U.S.”

This acquisition marks SENA’s entry into the critical Zone J market and reflects SENA’s focus on four core electricity market regions — New England, New York, PJM (which extends from Illinois to the mid-Atlantic states), and ERCOT (Texas). Together, these regions represent 15% of the land area in the U.S. and more than 30% of the nation’s electricity demand. All four regional markets are deregulated wholesale electricity markets.

SUEZ Energy Astoria, a subsidiary of SENA’s business unit, SUEZ Energy Generation North America (SEG), will serve as the plant’s operator and asset manager.

About SUEZ Energy North America

SUEZ Energy North America, Inc. is the business unit of SUEZ Energy International responsible for managing SUEZ’s positions within the energy value chain in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, including electricity generation and cogeneration, natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), asset-based trading and origination, and retail energy sales and related services to commercial and industrial customers.

SUEZ Energy North America owns and/or operates a total of 46 power, cogeneration, steam, and chilled-water facilities, including those in construction, representing a capacity of more than 5,660 MW of electricity generation, 6.0 million pounds per hour of steam, and 41,973 tons per hour of chilled water. SUEZ Energy North America’s wholly owned subsidiary, Distrigas of Massachusetts, owns and operates a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal in Everett, Mass., which began operations in 1971 and currently serves most of the gas utilities in New England and key power producers, meeting approximately 20 percent of New England’s annual gas demand. In addition, SUEZ Energy North America has two LNG deepwater port projects under development off the coasts of Massachusetts and Florida.

SUEZ Energy International is a business line of SUEZ, which is an international industrial and services Group that employs 149,000 people worldwide.

For more information about these companies and their activities, please visit the following Web sites:

   SUEZ: http://www.suez.com/   SUEZ Energy International: http://www.suezenergyint.com/   SUEZ Energy North America: http://www.suezenergyna.com/  

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SUEZ Energy North America

CONTACT: SUEZ Energy North America, Julie Vitek, +1-713-636-1962,Julie.vitek@suezenergyna.com, or SUEZ Energy International, Katja Damman,32 2 510 70 69, katja.damman@suezenergyint.com, or SUEZ Investor Relations,Arnaud Erbin, 33 1 4006 6489, arnaud.erbin@suez.com

Web site: http://www.suez.com/http://www.suezenergyint.com/http://www.suezenergyna.com/