SpatialNews Press Release

Nova Scotia Power Goes Live With Outage Management System From CES International

www.ces.com

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TAMPA, Fla., Mar 18, 2002 -- At the GITA conference here today, CES International (booth 413) announced that Nova Scotia Power Inc., one of the largest electric utilities in Canada, has gone live with the Centricity operations resource management software suite. The system allows the utility to respond more rapidly to power outages and to improve day-to-day network reliability.

In addition to the Centricity ORM suite, Nova Scotia Power has implemented a geographic information system from CES International partner ESRI. Nova Scotia Power expects the integrated ORM and GIS systems to improve service reliability and increase productivity.

"What this means to our customers is that we can now provide them with what they've always wanted -- information on the outage that is affecting them," said Steve Hazel, Nova Scotia Power program manager. "In time, we should see a significant reduction in restoration time."

Centricity streamlines and automates the process of fielding customer calls, dispatching repair crews and managing crews while they are in the field restoring electrical power. Centricity also will help Nova Scotia Power analyze operating data to improve routine network operations and predict and head off potential failures in its distribution systems.

Working in tandem with the ESRI GIS system, Centricity integrates customer location data and incoming calls regarding power outages. This information provides operations-center personnel and utility executives with a comprehensive, real-time view of the Nova Scotia Power distribution network and where problems -- or potential problems -- lie.

Centricity also interfaces with several of the utility's other mission- critical systems, including its customer information, interactive voice response and SCADA systems.

"The most important thing from an operational standpoint was that we were managing wires and transformers, and now we're managing specific customer outages," said Hazel. "We can now deal with customers one by one rather than driving around the roads looking for downed wires."

Nova Scotia Power began a comprehensive search for an outage-management system in the wake of a 1997 ice storm that caused an outage three times larger than any previous.

"We looked at pretty much every outage-management system out there," Hazel said. "We did a comprehensive needs assessment and came up with about 100 issues that we needed our system to address. CES International's Centricity product best addressed those issues."

Hazel said Nova Scotia Power already has garnered significant benefits from CES International's Centricity Web Call Entry module, which has been up and running since August of 2001. The Web Call Entry screen resembles a trouble-ticket screen, allowing customer service representatives to record customer information, complaint descriptions and any relevant notes.

"Handling times had gone down significantly even before we rolled out the outage-management capabilities," he said.

In addition to Web Call Entry, Nova Scotia Power is live with several other Centricity modules, including the Performance Mart, which integrates data from multiple systems into easy-to-read performance reports that can be posted or distributed via intranet or Internet. The other live modules are Operator's Workspace and Trouble Management.

Said Dave Jones, CEO and president of CES International, "We're very pleased with the results at Nova Scotia to date, and we are proud of the 'best-of-breed' success we have had on this project with our partner ESRI. NSPI's goal is to be their customers' No. 1 choice for energy and services, and we believe Centricity will help maintain and enhance their position with customers."

About Nova Scotia Power Inc.

Nova Scotia Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera (TSE: EMA), a diversified energy and services company. NSPI provides more than 95 percent of electric generation, transmission and distribution to more than 440,000 customers across Nova Scotia. For more information, visit www.nspower.ca .

About CES International

CES International is a leading global supplier of real-time software solutions for distribution utilities. CES' flagship product, the Centricity operations resource management (ORM) system, optimizes distribution-network operations and reliability, dramatically increasing customer-service capabilities. The Centricity information infrastructure enables the safe and efficient integration of emerging power technologies with traditional distribution networks. Equipped with comprehensive energy-delivery management capabilities, Centricity helps customers achieve enhanced return on network assets and deliver the "high 9s" reliability and power-quality levels demanded by the information economy. For more information on CES International, visit www.ces.com or call 1-800-450-0266.

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