HOUSTON, Sep 3, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- More than 160 CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: CNP) employees including distribution and transmission crews, engineers and safety personnel will leave Houston early Sunday morning. They will begin the 1,200 mile drive to Florida in a convoy of nearly 100 trucks to help Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy Florida with anticipated power restoration efforts resulting from Hurricane Frances.

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Coming to the aid of other utilities is nothing new to CenterPoint Energy line crews who just returned from Florida Sunday after restoring power to hundreds of thousands of Florida Power & Light customers after Hurricane Charley hit last month.

The company is part of a national mutual assistance program that comes to the aid of other utilities when there are widespread power outages.

"The need will be great," said Ed Russell, an operations manager for CenterPoint Energy who just returned from Florida after Hurricane Charley. "But we're glad to go help because these utilities would be here for us if a storm were to hit here."

During last year's summer storm season, hundreds of CenterPoint Energy linemen traveled to Illinois, south Texas, and Virginia to restore power to more than 800,000 customers of other utility companies.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a domestic energy delivery company that includes electric transmission & distribution, natural gas distribution and sales, interstate pipeline and gathering operations, and more than 14,000 megawatts of power generation in Texas, of which approximately 2,500 megawatts are currently in mothball status. The company serves nearly five million metered customers primarily in Arkansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Assets total over $21 billion. With more than 11,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 130 years. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.CenterPointEnergy.com .

SOURCE CenterPoint Energy

Alicia Dixon of CenterPoint Energy, +1-713-207-5885, or pager,
+1-713-619-5143
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