ATLANTA, GEORGIA - September 26, 2006 :- GE Energy’s first 7H gas turbine, one of the most efficient and advanced machines of its type in the world, has completed testing and is on its way to the Inland Empire Energy Center near Riverside, California, the commercial launch site for GE's 60-hertz H System™ technology.

The 7H, the first of two units planned for the 775-megawatt Inland Empire project, was shipped from GE’s Greenville, South Carolina facility on September 15. The 696,000-pound machine was loaded onto a special rail car for a 260-mile journey to the port of Charleston, S.C., where it was placed aboard a vessel for a six-week voyage through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California. From there, the 7H will have a one-week road trip to the Inland Empire Energy Center in Romoland, near Riverside, arriving at the project site in early November.

The world's first combined-cycle platform with the capability to reach 60+ percent thermal efficiency, the H System is a key component of GE ecomagination, a corporate-wide initiative to develop and market technologies that will help customers address pressing environmental challenges.

Operating on natural gas, the two GE 107 H combined-cycle units at Inland Empire will produce enough power to supply nearly 600,000 households while reducing future carbon dioxide emissions by more than 146,000 tons a year, compared to a typical gas-fired power plant of a similar size. The new power plant is expected to enter commercial service by the summer of 2008, in time to help offset state-forecasted energy shortfalls in Southern California.

"The shipment of our first 7H is an exciting milestone in the journey on the road to commercial operation for our most advanced 60-hertz gas turbine," said John Reinker, general manager of gas turbine and combined-cycle products for GE Energy. "Southern California, with its strong focus on finding more efficient and cleaner methods to meet its growing power requirements, is an ideal place to showcase our latest technology."

GE will finance and own the Inland Empire Energy Center. Calpine Power Services will manage plant construction, and Calpine Energy Services will market the plant's output and manage fuel requirements under a long-term marketing arrangement with GE. Following an extended period of GE ownership, Calpine expects to purchase the plant and become its sole owner and operator, with GE continuing to provide critical plant maintenance services under a long-term agreement with Calpine.

Other recent H System highlights have included:

• In June, GE shipped the first of three 50-hertz, 9H gas turbines to Japan for Tokyo Electric Power Company's Futtsu Thermal Power Station Group 4 project.
• The world's first H System recently surpassed 17,000 operating hours at the Baglan Bay Power Station in Port Talbot, South Wales, where it began commercial service in 2003.

Representing a technology breakthrough for the global power industry, GE's H System features an innovative steam cooling system that enables the higher firing temperatures required for increased efficiency. In addition, GE engineers designed the H turbines' first-stage buckets and nozzles with single-crystal materials to withstand higher temperatures over a long service life.

About GE Energy

GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) ) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2005 revenue of $16.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomagination, GE's corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges.

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