# Dominion News

Dominion Sets Schedule to Close Salem Harbor Power Station - Units 1 and 2 to cease operations by end of this year - All Salem Harbor units and station to retire on June 1, 2014 - Pending environmental regulations, market conditions led to decision SALEM, Mass., May 11, 2011 / PRNewswire / -- Dominion (NYSE: D) will cease operating two of the four units at Salem Harbor Power Station by the end of the year and pla ns to retire all four units on June 1, 2014, because pending environmental regulations and market conditions are making the power station uneconomical to operate. Company officials today told ISO-New England, the independent system operat or for the region's electric grid, that it will not seek to negotiate an agreement t hat could keep the station operating beyond existing commitments. "This was a decision we had to make given the significant costs requi red to keep the station in compliance with pending environmental regulations and the falling margins f or coal stations selling electricity in New England," said David A. Christian, chief exec utive officer of Dominion Generation. "Salem Harbor employees are dedicated professionals who will continue to operate the station safely as we move toward retirement in 2014." Dominion has operated Salem Harbor safely, economically and in complianc e with existing environmental regulations since it purchased the power station in 2005. Dominion said last year that it would not invest the funds needed to comply with new environmental regulations that would go into effect in 2014 and beyond. The company would have been r equired to spend millions of dollars on new controls at the power station to comply w ith new regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dominion last fall submitted a permanent delist bid for all four Sa lem Harbor units in the ISO-New England's Forward Capacity Auction 5, covering June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015. ISO-Ne w England rejected that bid and offered a mitigated price that did not guarantee full cost recovery of the environmental controls. In response, the company submitted a non-price reti rement bid for all four units in February. On May 10, the ISO informed Dominion that it had acce pted those bids for Units 1 and 2, but rejected the non-price retirement bids for Units 3 and 4 because they were needed for system reliability during the FCA5 commitment period. "We would have been faced with spending millions to comply with new environme ntal regulations without assurance of full cost recovery before committing to support the ISO's reliability needs," said Christian. "We could not take that risk." Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 27,600 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas tr ansmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,200 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of st orage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion, visitthe company's website at www.dom.com

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Dominion News

9/12/2011 http://dom.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=988