Texas Genco Holdings, Inc. announced that a 610-MW coal-fired electric generating unit at its W.A. Parish Electric Generating Station, was back on-line and operating at full power yesterday. Unit 8 had been off-line since July 15, 2003, when a steam pipe ruptured, causing an unplanned outage. It is one of four coal units at the plant, located in Fort Bend County, Texas, approximately 50 miles southwest of downtown Houston.

"I want to commend the efforts of all the employees and contractors who worked to restore the unit back into service," said David Tees, president and chief executive officer of Texas Genco. "They worked safely and tirelessly to get the unit back on-line in a minimum amount of time."

The pipe was replaced and repairs to the unit were completed on September 5, 2003. As a preventative measure, pipe-monitoring instrumentation will be installed on Unit 8 and the other three coal units' steam pipes to provide on-line condition assessment.

A three-week maintenance outage originally scheduled for November 2003 was conducted during this unplanned outage.

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. 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 www.txgenco.com .

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SOURCE: Texas Genco Holdings, Inc.