Dominion's Nuclear Units Among the Lowest Cost U.S. Performers

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Dominion's Nuclear Units Among the Lowest Cost U.S. Performers in 
1999 

RICHMOND, Va., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- For the eighth consecutive 
year, Dominion's (NYSE: D) two nuclear stations were among the top 
low-cost producers of nuclear-generated electricity in the United 
States, an industry database reports.  

Nucleonics Week, in its annual ranking of nuclear stations, reports 
that North Anna Power Station was the second lowest-cost producer of 
electricity in 1999 at $11.20 per net megawatt-hour generated, and 
Surry Power Station was ninth lowest at $13.41 per net megawatt-hour 
generated. 

"Our performance continues to show that our nuclear stations provide 
an excellent economic value to our customers and our shareholders," 
said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion Energy chief executive officer.  
"By continuing to focus on safe operations, teamwork, and attention 
to detail in getting the job done, we are producing reliable 
electricity at competitive prices." 

Nucleonics Week reports that the 1999 median cost for nuclear 
stations that generated power and reported their costs to the federal 
government was $16.40 per net megawatt-hour. 

The industry also tracks production costs over three-year cycles, 
which more accurately reflects the impact of refueling outages on 
production costs. For the eighth consecutive three-year cycle, North 
Anna led the nation's 70 nuclear power stations in production costs 
at $11.28 per net megawatt-hour for 1997-99.  Surry was fourth at 
$13.10. 

North Anna Power Station has two 900-megawatt (net), three-loop 
pressurized water reactors, while Surry has two 800-megawatt (net), 
three-loop pressurized water reactors.  Last year, North Anna and 
Surry generated 15,309,614 and 12,991,029 net megawatt-hours of 
electricity, respectively. 

Dominion Generation, a unit of Dominion Energy, manages the electric 
generating plants of Virginia Power (www.vapower.com), including 
North Anna and Surry.  Dominion Energy is a subsidiary of Dominion, 
the nation's largest fully integrated natural gas and electric power 
company with 4 million retail customers in five states.  For more 
information, visit the company's Internet site at www.dom.com. 

Nucleonics Week is a news and database publishing unit of The McGraw-
Hill Companies.  Nucleonics Week creates its annual rankings from 
production cost data filed by owners and operators of each U.S. 
nuclear unit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  
Production cost is the sum of operations and maintenance costs plus 
fuel costs, divided by the net amount of megawatt-hours generated.  
Nucleonics Week may be reached at (202) 383-2170. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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