Texas Genco Returns Portion of Gas-Fired Generation to Service From Mothball Status

Texas Genco Returns Portion of Gas-Fired Generation to Service
From Mothball Status 


HOUSTON, April 16  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Texas Genco Holdings, Inc. , a
majority-owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. , announced today that it
will return to service 403 megawatts of gas-fired generation by May 1, 2004:
T.H. Wharton Unit 2 (229 megawatts) and Deepwater Unit 7 (174 megawatts).  They
had been in mothball status since October 2003.

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Webster Unit 3 (374 megawatts) and all four P.H. Robinson units (2,211
megawatts), totaling 2,585 megawatts of gas-fired generation will remain shut
down through April 2005.

The company had previously expected to also return Webster Unit 3 to service in
May 2004.  The decision to keep this unit in mothball status is based on a
reassessment of the capacity necessary to serve the company's commitments. 
Although the company believes its decision to mothball these units will not
have an effect on the adequacy of power generation in Texas, it has requested
that the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas (ERCOT) determine which, if any,
of these units are necessary for reliability purposes.

Texas Genco Holdings, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is one of the largest
wholesale electric power generating companies in the United States with over
14,000 megawatts of generation capacity, of which nearly 3,000 megawatts are
currently in mothball status.  It sells electric generation capacity, energy
and ancillary services in one of the nation's largest power markets, the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).  Texas Genco has one of the most
diversified generation portfolios in Texas, using natural gas, oil, coal,
lignite, and uranium fuels.  The company owns and operates 60 generating units
at 11 electric power-generating facilities and owns a 30.8 percent interest in
a nuclear generating plant.  Texas Genco currently is a majority-owned
subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy, Inc.  For more information, visit our web
site at http://www.txgenco.com/ . 

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DATASOURCE: Texas Genco Holdings, Inc.



CONTACT:  media, Leticia Lowe, [phone], or investors, Marianne

Paulsen, [phone], both of Texas Genco Holdings, Inc.



Web site:  http://www.centerpointenergy.com/

http://www.txgenco.com/ 

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