ATLANTA, GA, March 15, 2001 — Under a contract of approximately US$28 million, GE Power Systems is supplying long-term maintenance services for two gas turbines installed for the expansion of Planta Luisa Caceres de Arismendi, a power plant that provides much of the electricity for Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela.

The plant is operated by Sistema Electrico del Estado Nueva Esparta (SENECA) based in Porlamar, Margarita Island. CMS Energy Corporation of Dearborn, MI is the majority owner of SENECA, with the remaining portion split between employees and the Venezuelan government.

GE Power Systems' Atlanta-based energy services unit will provide all planned and unplanned maintenance for 12 years for two MS6001B gas turbines that were added to the plant in late 1999. Those units produce 70 megawatts, joining seven MS5001B gas turbines at the site and bringing the total plant output to 227 megawatts. GE and SENECA previously had signed a long-term service agreement (LTSA) for the seven 5B units.

As part of the new LTSA, a GE service director in cooperation with SENECA will manage all planned and unplanned outages for the two 6B machines, their associated generators and specified auxiliary equipment. The LTSA includes performance incentives for availability, output and heat rate. GE also is providing Efficiency Map Plus, a GE Enter Software product for optimizing plant performance. Monitoring and diagnostics also are part of the LTSA package.

"Long-term service agreements offers a number of benefits for power producers," said Mike Kalmes, general manager of contractual services for GE Energy Services. "They enable the plant operators to reduce and optimize inventory levels, predict maintenance costs to avoid large cash outlays for unplanned events and volatile maintenance intervals, and set capital parts prices over the life of the agreement. In addition, the output, heat rate and availability guarantees help the plant operator to more accurately predict revenue."

Including the new agreement, GE now has three LTSAs at power plants where CMS Energy has majority ownership. Worldwide, GE Energy Services has compiled more than $15 billion in commitments for LTSAs and operation and maintenance agreements.

About GE Power Systems

GE Power Systems (www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation technology, energy services and management systems with 2000 revenue of $15 billion. The business has the largest installed base of power generation equipment in the global energy industry. GE Power Systems provides turnkey equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, distributed power and energy rental industries.