Pilot Project Captures 90% of CO2

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- We Energies, Alstom and The
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) announced today that a pilot project
testing an advanced chilled ammonia process has demonstrated more than 90
percent capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flue stream of at a
coal-fueled power plant in Wisconsin.

At a press conference at We Energies' Pleasant Prairie Power Plant, which
hosted the project, We Energies Chairman, President and CEO Gale Klappa,
Alstom U.S. President Pierre Gauthier, and EPRI Senior Vice President Hank
Courtright discussed the demonstration of Alstom's patented chilled ammonia
process for carbon capture. Testing at the pilot facility, using a
1.7-megawatt (electric) slipstream from the plant, began in early 2008 and
will conclude later this year.

The project confirmed the predicted performance of the chilled ammonia carbon
capture system at an operating power plant. It achieved key research metrics
around hours of operation, ammonia release, CO2 removal levels, and CO2
purity. In doing so, the project demonstrated the fundamental viability of the
carbon capture technology in real-world conditions such as changes in
temperature and humidity, the inevitable starts and stops of a large power
plant, and the environmental hurdles that go along with using any chemical
process.

"One of the biggest challenges facing our industry is the development of cost
effective technology that will allow us to capture carbon from the operation
of power plants around the world," said Klappa. "Today, with the success we're
reporting from the research here at Pleasant Prairie, the solution is one step
closer to reality."

Lessons learned at Pleasant Prairie already have provided critical information
for efforts to scale up effective carbon capture and storage technologies for
new power plants and for retrofit to existing plants. A scaled-up 20-megawatt
(electric) capture system has been installed at AEP's 1,300-megawatt
Mountaineer Plant, where it will remove an estimated 90% of carbon dioxide
emissions from the flue gas stream it processes, capturing up to 100,000
metric tons of CO2 per year.

The captured CO2 will be compressed, pipelined, and injected into two
different saline reservoirs located approximately 8,000 feet beneath the plant
site. Battelle Memorial Institute will serve as the consultant for AEP on
geological storage as an extensive monitoring system will be used to track the
extent of the sequestered CO2 over time.

"This project has been a success. It proved what we needed to know to stay on
schedule to commercialize carbon capture technology for new and existing power
plants by 2015, a necessary step to meet ambitious climate change targets
being proposed by policy makers in the U.S. and around the world," Gauthier
said. "Alstom believes carbon capture, along with energy efficiency and a full
portfolio of low carbon technologies including renewable power, will all be
needed to achieve urgent CO2 reduction goals in a timely manner."

Alstom, a leader in carbon capture technology, is pursuing 10 demonstration
projects in six different countries, including the We Energies project and
partnership at Mountaineer with American Electric Power. The Mountaineer
project is one of two current or planned post-combustion carbon capture and
storage (CCS) demonstrations for which EPRI has formed an industry
collaborative to support management of testing and evaluations.

The EPRI collaborative will support the integration process/design of CO2
capture technologies and the monitoring and verification of CO2 storage, and
it will assess the large-scale impacts of CO2 controls and storage on
post-combustion coal-fueled generation. The data collected and analyzed by the
collaborative will support efforts to advance CCS technologies to commercial
scale and provide information to the public and industry on future electricity
generation options.

EPRI is leading or supporting seven Industry Technology Demonstrations as part
of its efforts to help develop a "full portfolio" of innovative technology
approaches needed to make substantial CO2 emissions reductions while
minimizing economic impacts. EPRI's Prism and MERGE analyses (available at
www.epri.com) found that deployment of a full portfolio of advanced
technologies, including CCS, could reduce U.S. electric sector CO2 emissions
by 2030 to a level below 1990 emissions. EPRI currently is working on a global
analysis that is expected to show similar energy mix changes and significant
economic impacts.

"We Energies, Alstom, EPRI and 37 other companies worked together to
successfully advance carbon capture technology to the next step in its
development," said EPRI Senior Vice President Hank Courtright. "EPRI's
analyses show carbon capture and storage will be essential to achieve
meaningful CO2 emissions reductions, and do it in a cost-effective way while
meeting demand growth. Projects like this one, where a company steps up to
lead a project and several more form a collaborative support it, are critical
to advancing the technologies that we need to reduce the industry's carbon
footprint."

To learn more about the Pleasant Prairie carbon capture project, go to
P4chilledammonia.com

About We Energies
We Energies serves more than 1.1 million electric customers in Wisconsin and
Michigan's Upper Peninsula and more than 1 million natural gas customers in
Wisconsin. We Energies is the trade name of Wisconsin Electric Power Company
and Wisconsin Gas LLC, the principal utility subsidiaries of Wisconsin Energy
Corporation (NYSE: WEC). Visit the We Energies Web site at
www.we-energies.com. Learn more about Wisconsin Energy Corporation by visiting
www.wisconsinenergy.com.

About Alstom
Alstom (www.alstom.com) is a global leader in the world of power generation
and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and
environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the
highest capacity automated metro in the world, and provides turnkey integrated
power plant solutions, equipment and associated services for a wide variety of
energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind. The Group
employs more than 81,000 people in 70 countries, and had orders of euro 24.6
billion in 2008/09.

Alstom is at the forefront of carbon capture technology development. In the
past few years, Alstom has announced plans to develop ten CO2 capture
demonstration projects in six countries. All told, Alstom is mobilizing
hundreds of employees and has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in
support of its stated goal of making carbon capture technology commercially
available within six years.

About the Electric Power Research Institute
The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI, www.epri.com) conducts
research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of
electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit
organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as
experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity,
including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment. EPRI's
members represent more than 90 percent of the electricity generated and
delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to 40
countries. EPRI's principal offices and laboratories are located in Palo Alto,
Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Lenox, Mass.

SOURCE We Energies

Clay C. Perry of Electric Power Research Institute, Inc., +1-202-293-6184,
clperry@epri.com; or Tim Brown of Alstom, +1-202-495-4968,
Timothy.s.brown@power.alstom.com; or Brian Manthey of We Energies,
+1-414-221-4444, Brian.Manthey@we-energies.com