Reliant Energy's President and Chief Operating Officer of regulated operations David M. McClanahan, will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Distribution -- Positioning for the Future" at the Salomon Smith Barney Power & Merchant Energy 2002 Conference on Wednesday, May 15, 2002.

Reliant Energy plans to divide into two publicly traded companies: CenterPoint Energy, a primarily regulated business that includes electric transmission and distribution, natural gas distribution, pipelines and gathering, and 14,000 megawatts of power generation in Texas; and Reliant Resources, an unregulated power generation, energy trading and marketing, and retail business. Upon completion of the Reliant Energy's restructuring plan, McClanahan will be the president and chief executive officer of CenterPoint Energy. It will be the country's second largest combined electricity and natural gas delivery company with almost 5 million metered customers.

The live webcast of the presentation will begin at approximately 10:25 a.m. Eastern time. You are invited to access the presentation on the Internet at http://www.reliantenergy.com/ , in the Investors section. A replay of the presentation will be available approximately one hour after the live webcast and will be archived for 14 days.

Reliant Energy, based in Houston, Texas, is an international energy services and energy delivery company with approximately $42 billion in annual revenue and total assets exceeding $35 billion. The company has nearly 31,000 megawatts of power generation in operation in the U.S. and is one of the largest marketers of both power and natural gas in North America. The company also has wholesale trading and marketing operations and nearly 3,500 megawatts of power generation in Western Europe. Reliant Energy's retail marketing and distribution operations serve nearly five million electricity and natural gas customers in the U.S. More information on Reliant Energy can be found on its web site http://www.reliantenergy.com/ .

MAKE YOUR OPINION COUNT - Click Here
http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X23215919

NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000309/DATH030

AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/

PRN Photo Desk, +1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840

SOURCE: Reliant Energy

Contact: media, Leticia Lowe, +1-713-207-7702, or investors, Marianne
Paulsen, +1-713-207-6500, both of Reliant Energy