ACEEE NEWS RELEASE

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ALLIANCE TO SAVE ENERGY, AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT ECONOMY, AND ENERGY FUTURE COALITION ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR DUKE ENERGY'S ENERGY EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE

February 5, 2008

Washington, D.C.— The Alliance to Save Energy (Alliance), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and the Energy Future Coalition reached an agreement with Duke Energy to expand its energy efficiency programs, including a more aggressive energy savings target.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Alliance, ACEEE, and the Energy Future Coalition now endorse Duke Energy's save a watt initiative as an innovative and promising new direction for the company and its customers. While supporting the save a watt initiative, the Alliance, ACEEE, and the Energy Future Coalition will look to regulators in each state to determine an appropriate and reasonable level of compensation.

Duke Energy announced new, aggressive energy efficiency targets of 1 percent of ongoing retail electricity sales by 2015 in its five-state region, upon approval of its save a watt initiative. The company will pursue all cost-effective energy efficiency savings with no company-imposed cap on its total energy efficiency investment. The target is subject to the availability of cost-effective energy efficiency programs to achieve the target. To insure success in meeting this aggressive savings target, Duke Energy will devote approximately 5 percent of its energy efficiency program expenditures toward strong evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V) protocols and practices. And, an advisory committee will be formed to review Duke Energy's progress in achieving its energy efficiency goals.

"The Alliance to Save Energy applauds Duke Energy's innovative approach to deploying energy efficiency as the first and most valuable resource for meeting its customers' growing demand for energy," said Alliance's President Kateri Callahan. "Duke's commitment to unlimited investment in energy efficiency marks a paradigm shift away from conventional thinking that growing populations and growing demand by definition require new generation."

"We are excited about this new partnership to expand energy efficiency across the regions we serve," said Ted Schultz, Duke Energy's Vice President of Energy Efficiency. "We have adopted some very aggressive energy efficiency targets, but are confident we can produce these savings through additional programs and new technology that will provide greater savings to customers without sacrificing convenience or productivity."

"The nation's leading utilities and states are using energy efficiency programs to reduce electricity use by 1 percent or more each year, with savings growing steadily as savings each year are added to prior year accomplishments. We are appreciative that Duke has agreed to a 1 percent savings per year target and look forward to working with them, and through their save a watt initiative, to make this target a reality," said ACEEE's Executive Director Steven Nadel.

"Jim Rogers and Duke are leading the utility industry and the nation toward a new way of thinking about large-scale investment in energy efficiency," said Reid Detchon, Executive Director of the Energy Future Coalition. "The save a watt initiative takes on the region's energy challenge by pursuing the cheapest source of supply available - the wasted energy that drives up energy demand and costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars."

Duke Energy has filed energy efficiency plans in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Indiana. The company will be making similar filings in Ohio and Kentucky later this year.

The full agreement among these organizations is available for public view at http://ase.org/uploaded_files/temp/save-a-watt/saw_support_statement.pdf.

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