E.ON Climate & Renewables and CPS Energy Sign 15-Year Power Purchase Agreement

CHICAGO, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) North America today announced a 15-year power purchase agreement with CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned energy company providing both electric and natural gas service.

Under this agreement, CPS Energy will purchase 115.5 megawatts (MW) of electricity and associated renewable energy credits from EC&R’s new Papalote Creek wind farm, located in San Patricio County, Texas, east of Corpus Christi. This will provide enough energy to power approximately 25,000 homes. Construction on Papalote Creek is underway, and the project is expected to come online by fall 2009.

“EC&R’s agreement with CPS Energy underscores the need for accessible renewable energy,” said Declan Flanagan, CEO, EC&R North America. “We look forward to working with CPS Energy to provide the citizens of Greater San Antonio with clean and renewable energy.”

“CPS Energy is proud to rank number one in the amount of wind energy capacity among the nation’s municipally owned utilities,” said Milton Lee, CPS Energy general manager and CEO. “Additional wind-generated electricity from Papalote Creek is another indicator of our aggressive efforts to add to our already substantial renewable energy capacity.”

The additional 115.5 MW from Papalote Creek will boost CPS Energy’s total renewable energy capacity to 703.7 MW and will move the company closer to achieving its goal – generating capacity from renewable resources equivalent to 20 percent of customers’ peak electric demand by 2020.

In September, EC&R opened the first two phases of the Roscoe wind project. When all four phases are complete in mid-2009, Roscoe will be the world’s largest wind farm with 627 wind turbines and a total capacity of 781.5 MW. EC&R currently operates six wind farms in the United States with an installed capacity of 727 MW.

    * Roscoe Phase 1            209 MW     Roscoe, Texas
    * Panther Creek Phase 1   142.5 MW     Big Spring, Texas
    * Roscoe Phase 2          126.5 MW     Roscoe, Texas
    * Forest Creek            124.2 MW     Big Spring, Texas
    * Sand Bluff                 90 MW     Big Spring, Texas
    * Munnsville               34.5 MW     Munnsville, New York

About EC&R

E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) is responsible for activities of the E.ON group in renewable energy sources and environmental protection around the world. Tapping renewable energy sources offers enormous alternatives, both from a business perspective and for the environment. E.ON Climate & Renewables will invest over euro 6 billion in renewable energy and environmental protection projects by 2010 to expand the share of renewable energy sources in the E.ON portfolio for the long term. E.ON has thus taken a leading role in developing renewable energy sources worldwide. For more information, see www.eon.com.

About CPS Energy

Acquired by the City of San Antonio in 1942, CPS Energy serves more than 690,000 electric customers and almost 320,000 natural gas customers in and around the seventh-largest city in the U.S. CPS Energy bills rank among the lowest of the nation’s largest cities, and the company has earned the highest financial ratings of any electric system in the nation. For more information, visit www.cpsenergy.com.

SOURCE E.ON Climate & Renewables