Dominion Energy to Replace North Anna Reactor Vessel Head This Fall

October 7, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Energy, the electric generating unit of Dominion (NYSE: D), announced Monday it will purchase a new, crack-resistant vessel head from a French company and use it to replace the one at North Anna Power Station Unit 2 this fall. The company will install the new head in December.

The replacement will have no impact on Dominion's 2002 or 2003 earnings.

The pressurized water reactors used by Dominion Energy and Electricite de France (EDF), the French energy company, are of virtually identical design. EDF has a spare vessel head in storage.

Dominion considered repairing the unit until it realized that repairs would take about as much time as replacing the vessel head.

Thos. E. Capps, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said:

"It makes economic sense for us to buy this spare vessel head from EDF and replace it now rather than continue making repairs to the existing one. We could perform the repairs and safely return the unit to service for another 18 months and then replace it, as we had originally planned, but the availability of the EDF spare changed our plans."

Dominion's inspection and analysis of the North Anna Unit 2 vessel head penetrations will not alter the operating or refueling schedules of the company's three other Virginia nuclear units. The company still intends to replace the vessel heads on North Anna Unit 1 and Surry Units 1 and 2 during scheduled refueling outages by the spring of 2005, as announced last month. The replacement costs are already included in Dominion's future earnings projections.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a production capability of more than 3 trillion British thermal unit of energy per day. Dominion serves nearly 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.

# # #

 

CONTACTS:    
Media: Richard R. Zuercher, (804) 273-3825  
     
Analysts: Tom Wohlfarth, (804) 819-2150  
  Joe O'Hare, (804) 819-2156