December 6, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion (NYSE: D) began sending more than 350 linemen, support teams, contractors and tree trimmers south Friday to help North Carolina's electric utilities restore power and recover from the worst ice storm to hit the Tar Heel State.

"We were fortunate that the storm was not nearly as bad as it could have been in the areas we serve," said Jay L. Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power and Dominion North Carolina Power, which delivers electricity to more than 2 million customers in the two states. "We are at the point in our restoration effort that we can begin releasing crews to assist both Carolina Power & Light and Duke Power, just as they have helped us recover from previous storms."

The storm that struck late Wednesday and early Thursday affected nearly 68,000 Dominion customers in primarily rural Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Hardest hit in the company's service area was Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where trees, broken limbs and ice cut power to about 20,000 customers, or about four out of every five area customers. As of 12:30 p.m. Friday, only about 8,000 remained without electricity, and most of those would have their lights back on by late Friday.

In contrast, more than a million homes and businesses in areas of North Carolina served by CP&L and Duke Power were left in the dark as more than one-half inch of ice toppled trees into power lines.

Dominion released several hundred tree trimmers and power line contractors as well as an initial wave of 50 Dominion employees to assist the North Carolina utilities. Additional Dominion crews will be sent to the area over the weekend.

Dominion has a diversified and integrated energy portfolio consisting of about 24,000 megawatts of generation. Dominion also serves more than 3.8 million franchise natural gas and electric customers in five states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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