LODESTAR Corporation Manages Southwest Power Pool's Back-Office Financial Functions

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LODESTAR Corporation Manages Southwest Power Pool's

Back-Office Financial Functions

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TO BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY EDITORS:

LODESTAR Corporation Manages Southwest Power Pool's

Back-Office Financial Functions

Regional Transmission Organization Implements

LODESTAR's BillingExpert and Financial Management Extension

PEABODY, MASSACHUSETTS, May. 4 -/E-Wire/-- LODESTAR Corporation today announced that its solutions are managing the back-office financial functions for Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP). With more than 100 clients in North America, LODESTAR is a leading provider of e-Business software solutions to enable customer choice in the new energy economy.

SPP maintains the reliability, adequacy and security of the bulk electric power system for an area of 400,000 square miles that crosses eight states -- Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. SPP is using LODESTAR's BillingExpert(TM) and Financial Management Extension(TM) (FME(TM)) to manage its financial back-office processes, such as calculating and posting charges, credits and balances, managing and applying late charges and performing settlement as required by FERC Order 2000. In addition, FME will enable SPP to communicate customer information with other trading partners in the industry and to meet the requirements mandated by deregulation for consumer retail access in Texas by June 1, 2001.

"LODESTAR's software allows us to meet the needs of our customers who operate in both regulated and deregulated environments, as well as states with different regulatory requirements," said Richard Dillon, SPP's manager of Market Operations. "The software meets the need to settle in an environment where multiple versions of data exist and market rules are changing. In addition to the flexibility of the language, the versioning capability is essential."

"RTOs select LODESTAR because our flexibility enables them to adapt quickly to changing business models, while our scalability ensures that they will be ready as their market grows in size and complexity," said Chris Hamilos, LODESTAR's chairman and CEO. "RTOs need technology that will handle multiple billing scenarios. BillingExpert and FME provide financial organizations with the data and reports they need to close their books every month and give executives the critical information they need to ensure their companies' success in this complex marketplace."

LODESTAR's FME is an extension to LODESTAR's BillingExpert(TM) that manages a number of back-office financial management and accounts receivable functions.

FME tracks accounts receivable, revenue and general ledger information for all transactions that take place within the LODESTAR Customer Choice Suite(TM) of software solutions or within applications from any other software provider. In addition to SPP, LODESTAR provides solutions for RTOs and ISOs including GridSouth Transco, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Midwest ISO.

About Southwest Power Pool, Inc. Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) currently consists of 50 members serving more than 4 million customers across all or part of eight southwestern states. This membership is comprised of investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, federal agencies, wholesale generators, and power marketers. SPP coordinates, promotes, and communicates about reliability in all aspects of the electric energy business.

About LODESTAR Corporation LODESTAR provides leading e-Business software solutions to enable customer choice in the new energy economy. With more than 100 clients in North America, LODESTAR is a well-known and reliable provider of world-class software solutions. Energy providers use LODESTAR software for pricing, billing, load profiling and settlement, financial management and transaction management. The LODESTAR(R) Customer Choice Suite(TM) (CCS(TM)) provides the world's most complete, flexible, scalable and reliable Web-based software to competitive retail companies, regulated distribution companies, independent system operators, and transmission and generation companies. LODESTAR customers include Shell Energy Services Company, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), TXU, Allegheny Power, BC Hydro and Duke Power.

LODESTAR Corporation's headquarters is at Two Corporation Way in Peabody, Mass., 01960 USA. For more information, visit www.lodestarcorp.com or call (888) 225-1293.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The success of the agreements and products described above and the future operating results of LODESTAR Corporation may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to factors that include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the eBusiness software applications market, dependence on the Internet, risks associated with new versions and new products and risks associated with rapid technological change.

LODESTAR, BillingExpert, Financial Management Extension (FME), Customer Choice Suite (CSS), RateExpert, LODESTAR Profile and Settlement System (LPSS), LODESTAR Data Repository and LODESTAR Transaction Management Hub (LTMH) are all either registered trademarks, registered service marks, trademarks, and/or service marks of LODESTAR Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands, product names, company names, logos, trademarks, service marks, and symbols may be the property of their respective owners.

LODESTAR Corporation

http://www.lodestarcorp.com

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