Dominion to Pursue Sale of Three Merchant Power Stations

RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) said today it intends to pursue the sale of three fossil fuel-fired merchant power stations, one in Massachusetts and two in Illinois.

The power stations are:

• Brayton Point Power Station, a 1,536-megawatt power station in Somerset, Mass., with three coal-fired units and one unit fired by oil or natural gas. Dominion has owned it since 2005.
• Kincaid Power Station, a 1,158-megawatt power station in Kincaid, Ill., with two 579-megawatt coal-fired units. Dominion has owned Kincaid since 1998. And
• Elwood Power Station, a 1,424-megawatt power station outside Chicago, with nine 158-megawatt natural gas-fired combustion turbines. Dominion has owned a 50 percent interest in and operated the station since Elwood became operational in 1999.

Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said:

"These are excellent, well-operating and well-maintained facilities. State-of-the-art emissions controls have been or are in the process of being installed at the stations' coal-fired units, which are fully compliant with stringent, new federal air regulations.

"However, as we have said for some time, Dominion continually reviews its assets to ensure they still fit strategically and support our objectives to improve return on invested capital and shareholder value. We believe the sale of these assets and the redeployment of capital to our regulated businesses is the best path forward for shareholders."

The sales are expected to be completed in the first half of 2013.  The company plans to invest the proceeds in growth of the company's regulated businesses and reduce debt needs.

Farrell said the company's top priority will be a continued focus on the safe operations of the power stations.

"We will ensure the facilities have the resources they need to operate safely and reliably," said Farrell.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,000 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines.  Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.

This news release includes certain "forward-looking information." Examples include our expectations regarding the completion and timing of the sales of the merchant generation facilities listed above and use of sale proceeds. Although Dominion believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these uncertainties may prove to be incorrect. Dominion's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors that are difficult to predict, involve uncertainties and are often beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely, such as receipt of approvals for and timing of closing dates for acquisitions and divestitures. We have identified and will in the future identify a number of these factors in our SEC Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We refer you to those discussions for further information.  Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which it is made.

SOURCE Dominion

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