LOUISVILLE, KY, Monday 1/3/2005 - Genscape Inc., the nation’s first and only supplier of real-time power plant output and transmission status information today said that its data shows higher consumption and higher fuel efficiency at the nation’s coal-fired power plants.

Coal use in 2004 increased nearly 15 million tons or 2.9% at plants monitored by Genscape compared to 2003, while electricity output from coal rose 6%. For the entire coal-fired fleet, Genscape estimates coal consumption rose by 30 million tons.

Total power output from all the plants monitored by Genscape increased by 8.2%. In addition to rising coal-fired generation, nuclear power plants operated much more smoothly last year, increasing production by 7.2%. Hydro-electric power saw the largest increase, 23.5%, compared to 2003.

Coal and nuclear ate into the market share of natural gas and fuel oil, which were both too expensive to be competitive except at peak demand times in 2004. There are signs however that both the coal and nuclear plant fleets are reaching the limits of their capacity, and that increases in power consumption will lead to higher natural gas use in 2005.

Genscape monitors electricity output at hundreds of plants and transmission points across the United States, including 118 coal-fired plants. The observed power output in MWh at those plants is translated into tons of coal burnt using data modeling techniques.

The sum of capacity at the coal-fired plants monitored by Genscape represents 49pc of the overall coal plant capacity nationwide. The coal consumption at those plants shows a perfect correlation with total coal consumption for power generation.

Genscape’s coal use estimates are published in The Genscape Weekly Coal Burn Index, which since its launch in May of 2004 has become the energy industry’s primary source for timely coal consumption data.

ABOUT GENSCAPE

Genscape’s information gathering and distribution system consists of technology to monitor the real-time power output of power plants and load on high-voltage transmission lines. Information reported to customers includes highly accurate estimates of the real-time power output for generating facilities, power flows over strategic transmission paths, and associated information.

Genscape Inc. is the only company to have commercialized the provision of real-time power supply information to support decision-making for energy traders, power plant and line owners and operators, regulators, and other energy market participants. Genscape maintains a 45 person staff and an international headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.