CIN Cinergy Corp

Broadband Over Power Line Network to Be Available to Serve Approximately Two Million Texas Homes and Businesses DALLAS and GERMANTOWN, Md., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TXU Electric Delivery, the nation's sixth largest electric transmission and distribution company and a subsidiary of TXU Corp. (NYSE:TXU), and CURRENT Communications Group, LLC, the nation's leading provider of broadband over power line (BPL) solutions, today announced an agreement to transform TXU Electric Delivery's power distribution network into the nation's first broadband-enabled Smart Grid. CURRENT will design, build and operate the BPL network covering the majority of the TXU Electric Delivery service area, including approximately two million homes and businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and other Texas communities. This modernized grid will dramatically enhance TXU Electric Delivery's ability to deliver top-decile electric service reliability and provide the potential for additional products and services from retail electric providers that will enable businesses and consumers to manage their electricity usage and costs. Overlaid on the existing electric distribution network, the CURRENT(TM) BPL network solution incorporates advanced digital communication and computing capabilities that, for the first time, provide real-time monitoring through the electric distribution network, enabling TXU Electric Delivery to: * Increase network reliability and power quality * Prevent, detect and restore customer outages more effectively and * Implement automated meter reading more efficiently. Additionally, CURRENT will leverage the same BPL network to provide homes and businesses high-performance broadband and wireless services, including the "triple play" of voice, video and high-speed Internet access delivered over existing electrical lines by simply plugging into any home outlet. Under the terms of the agreement with CURRENT, TXU Electric Delivery will procure services over 10 years for approximately $150 million to utilize the Smart Grid capabilities of CURRENT's BPL network. The cost of the service agreement does not materially affect TXU Corp.'s previously disclosed financial outlook. When the agreements become effective, TXU Corp. will become an equity holder in CURRENT. Existing CURRENT shareholders include Cinergy Corporation (NYSE:CIN), EnerTech Capital, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Google Inc., The Hearst Corporation, and Liberty Associated Partners, LP, of which Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE:L) is a significant limited partner. "CURRENT's BPL solution is a critical enabler of our mission to dramatically improve the way we deliver electricity," said Tom Baker, TXU Electric Delivery chairman and CEO. "BPL will enable us to respond more quickly and efficiently to outages of all magnitudes, manage our distribution network more proactively and further safeguard our dispersed critical assets in today's heightened security environment." "We are immensely pleased to be working with an industry leader such as TXU. This agreement is a milestone for CURRENT as well as for BPL and illustrates the economic advantages of driving multiple applications across a single large scale network deployment," said William H. Berkman, chairman and co-founder of CURRENT Communications Group and managing partner of Liberty Associated Partners. "Today's announcement is solid evidence of how BPL answers the federal government's recent call to create a more efficient and reliable 21st century electricity distribution network." TXU Electric Delivery and CURRENT expect to begin deploying the BPL network in 2006. Black River Capital LLC acted as an advisor to TXU Electric Delivery in this transaction. About TXU Corp. TXU Corp., a Dallas-based energy company, manages a portfolio of competitive and regulated energy businesses primarily in Texas. In the competitive TXU Energy Holdings segment (comprised of electricity generation, wholesale marketing and retailing), TXU Energy provides electricity and related services to more than 2.3 million competitive electricity customers in Texas, more customers than any other retail electric provider in the state. TXU Power has over 18,300 megawatts of generation in Texas, including 2,300 MW of nuclear and 5,837 MW of lignite/coal-fired generation capacity. The company is also one of the largest purchasers of wind-generated electricity in Texas and North America. TXU Wholesale optimizes the purchases and sales of energy for TXU Energy and TXU Power and provides related services to other market participants. TXU Corp.'s regulated segment, TXU Electric Delivery, is an electric distribution and transmission business that complements the competitive operations, using superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to consumers. TXU Electric Delivery operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, providing power to three million electric delivery points over more than 100,000 miles of distribution and 14,000 miles of transmission lines. Visit http://www.txucorp.com/ for more information about TXU Corp. About CURRENT Communications Group CURRENT Communications Group, LLC, a privately-held company based in Germantown, Md., is the leading provider of broadband over power line (BPL) solutions to electric distribution companies worldwide. The CURRENT BPL portfolio includes BPL network equipment, software solutions and Smart Grid Services comprised of electric utility applications enabling real-time management of the electric grid. CURRENT also is a fully integrated communications service provider, offering high performance broadband Internet services to consumer and business users over existing electrical infrastructure. Further information about CURRENT is available at http://www.currentgroup.com/. This release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that TXU Electric Delivery will be able to obtain the benefits that it expects from the deployment of the BPL network. The forward-looking statements in this release could be affected by a number of factors, including: the ability of CURRENT to attract sufficient equity investors and obtain the financing in a timely manner; construction and operational issues relating to a large scale rollout of the BPL network that have not been anticipated; changes in technology that impact the viability of BPL technologies employed by CURRENT; changes in laws and regulations; the relative costs of services provided by alternate utility and retail broadband competitors, and additional costs that could be incurred by TXU Electric Delivery in the event that the BPL network is not deployed or does not operate in the manner currently anticipated . DATASOURCE: TXU Corp. CONTACT: Media: Chris Schein, +1-214-875-8329, or Investor Relations: Tim Hogan, +1-214-812-4641, Bill Huber, +1-214-812-2480, Steve Oakley, +1-214-812-2220, all for TXU Corp.; Media / Contact for daily papers, trades media and international media: Melissa Kresse of Financial Dynamics, O: +1-212-850-5695, M: +1-646-621-4194, mkresse@fd_us.com, Contact for financial media, wire services & investors: Jim Barron or Robin Weinberg, both of Citigate Sard Verbinnen, O: +1-212-687-8080, , all for CURRENT Communications Group, LLC Web site: http://www.txu.com/ http://www.txucorp.com/ http://www.currentgroup.com/

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