DUKE ENERGY SELLS WASHINGTON STATE FACILITY

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Duke Energy announced today that an agreement was reached in late December to sell its Grays Harbor Energy Facility to an affiliate of Invenergy LLC for $21 million plus other contingent considerations. Total sales proceeds and tax benefits for this transaction will be approximately $116 million. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2005, pending required regulatory approvals. 

The Grays Harbor facility consists of a partially completed 620-megawatt, combined-cycle generating facility, located in the Satsop Development Park in Grays Harbor County, Wash., that is currently in a construction deferral.  Duke Energy is working to eliminate its capital lease obligation for the dedicated pipeline which transports natural gas to the plant, substantially offsetting the proceeds and tax benefits from this sale. 

Grays Harbor is the third of the three deferred construction projects to be sold by Duke Energy in the past year. The other two deferred projects recently divested include the Moapa Energy Facility in Clark County, Nev., sold in October 2004 and the Luna Energy Facility near Deming, N.M., sold in November 2004.

“The sale of the Grays Harbor Energy Facility will complete the divestiture of all three deferred merchant projects in our fleet, delivering on our previously announced intention to divest these facilities,” said Fred Fowler, president and chief operating officer of Duke Energy. For 2004, Duke Energy agreed to or closed asset sales that will provide the company with approximately $3.2 billion in proceeds including approximately $850 million in tax benefits and $840 million in debt reductions, significantly exceeding its 2004 divestiture target.

A reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures in this release to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available on our investor relations Web site at: http://www.duke-energy.com/investors/publications/gaap/.

Duke Energy is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and an affiliated real estate company. Duke Energy supplies, delivers and processes energy for customers in the Americas. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: http://www.duke-energy.com.

Contact:	Pat Mullen
Phone:	805/595-5597
24-Hour Phone:	704/382-8333
e-mail:	pwmullen@duke-energy.com