Southern Company Energy Marketing has agreed to market the output of four Sithe Energies electric generating plants, Southern Company announced today. The 15-month arrangement is scheduled to begin July 1998.

Located in New York, the Sterling, Massena, Ogdensburg and Batavia plants generate approximately 275 megawatts. As part of the agreement, Southern Company Energy Marketing also will supply up to 55 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to the plants. Southern Company Energy Marketing plans to sell the power into wholesale markets in New York, the Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Power Pool, the New England Power Pool (NEPool) and Canada.

“This is an important step for Southern Company Energy Marketing as it grows as a player in the Northeast wholesale energy marketing arena,” said Marce Fuller, president and chief executive officer of Southern Company Energy Marketing. “Coupled with Southern Energy’s recent acquisition of more than 1,200 megawatts in the NEPool from Commonwealth Energy, the agreement with Sithe builds Southern Company Energy Marketing’s position as a preeminent wholesale marketer.

“The Sithe agreement is consistent with our strategy to tightly link energy marketing with assets, be they owned, leased or under contract,” Fuller said.

Sithe Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer William Kriegel said, “We’re delighted to enter into this partnership with Southern, a company that shares our commitment to clean and reliable energy. As deregulation continues to unfold in the United States, we look forward to more mutually productive opportunities to work with Southern.”

Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company, through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, supplies electricity in 10 countries on four continents. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and Southern LINC wireless telecommunications. Its common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.

Southern Energy Inc., a unit of Southern Company, develops, builds, owns and operates power production and delivery facilities and provides a broad range of services to utilities and industrial companies around the world. Its Southern Company Energy Marketing affiliate, jointly owned with Vastar Resources Inc., provides energy trading, marketing and financial services and other energy-related commodities, products and services to customers in North America.

Based in Atlanta, with trading floors in Atlanta and Houston, Southern Company Energy Marketing is a leading energy and energy-related services marketer. During the first quarter of 1998 Southern Company Energy Marketing sold an average of 5.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas and 41.1 million megawatt hours of electricity.

New York-based Sithe Energies owns and operates 37 power plants worldwide with current aggregate capacity of more than 4,800 megawatts. In the United States, Sithe owns and operates power plants in Massachusetts – including the former generating assets of Boston Edison – New York, California, Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Jersey, North Carolina and Colorado. Overseas, Sithe’s extensive global portfolio of projects under operation, construction or development includes plants with a generating capacity of almost 6,000 megawatts in China, Australia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Tunisia and Argentina. Founded in 1984, Sithe Energies is 60 percent owned by Vivendi, France’s largest service company, 29 percent owned by Marubeni Corp., a major Japanese trading company, and 11 percent owned by management.