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PEABODY, MA., May 1, 2000 -(BUSINESS WIRE) - Alliant Energy, Madison, WI, is using LODESTAR to consolidate load research analysis across the energy company, helping it to meet new regulatory and marketing demands.

Alliant Energy, Madison, WI, was created April 21, 1998, as a result of the merger of IES Industries Inc., Interstate Power Co. and WPL Holdings, Inc. The union combined under one corporate umbrella the following utility subsidiaries: IES Utilities Inc., Interstate Power Co., Wisconsin Power and Light Co. and South Beloit Water, Gas and Electric Co.

In January 2000, Alliant Energy completed installation of LodeStar®. The software will be used to perform load analysis across the three companies. The load analysis team faced a series of challenges in trying to analyze customer behavior across the companies. Each utility employed a different analysis method. Load data also comes in from the three metering systems, and the utilities continue to use three different customer information systems.

LodeStar allows the utility to combine information from various data streams as desired. This capability will enable the team to hone the accuracy of the load research samples that create the "typical" load profiles for each customer class. Data from across all three utilities will be combined before calculating the profiles.

"As far as the standard load rate research analysis, we had three companies (to analyze) and three separate methods to analyze them," says Terry Baxter, Alliant Energy's team leader for forecasting. "One of the goals of purchasing LodeStar was to consolidate all of that analysis in the one package, consolidate all the data. It may be more than one database, but we'll have the ability to get to it and analyze it all together, if necessary. That was one emphasis."

"Another key reason for purchasing LodeStar was the plans the company has for merging the two Iowa utilities into one, a move that requires regulatory filings to be made as a single company. That makes LodeStar even more valuable because we are going to have to have one sample, starting next year, for one of the customer classes," says Baxter. "Next year, we will definitely have to file merged numbers." Using the old analysis software would also have required rewriting programs to perform analysis on the new combined samples.

The group also is better equipped to meet requirements established by Illinois under electric industry restructuring. "We were required by Illinois to set up a system to put daily profiles on the Internet," says Baxter. "We actually used a consultant to develop the models, but supplying the underlying data from two different MV-90 systems was a challenge. We certainly think that with LodeStar we can make that a little easier."

The group also plans to use LodeStar to develop load profiles for targeted business segments. The project is of keen interest to alliant Energy marketers. "LodeStar makes that much easier to do ," says Baxter. "When we analyze a segment, like office buildings, we actually will use all the points across all three companies to make it more accurate. We would have had to write code before to aggregate data."

Electric industry competition is forcing load research groups to become more nimble. "In a deregulated market, things are going to start to Move faster, and we are going to have to respond quicker," he says. "There are going to be different types of requests for data."

Baxter welcomes the efficiency in the LodeStar system. "There were about seven or eight steps to do the analysis on the MV-90 system [at one of the utilities]. I think that's consolidated down to about two steps in LodeStar. I'd say the product gets a grade of A."

About Lodestar
LODESTAR is a leading global provider of enterprise application software to energy providers. The LODESTAR Customer Choice Suite provides the world's most flexible, scalable and reliable web-enabled software to competitive Retail Companies, regulated Distribution Companies and Independent System Operators to enable Customer Choice! The LODESTAR Customer Choice Suite includes: LodeStar®, a flexible client/server-based load research system; RateExpert™, software for pricing and profitability analysis; BillingExpert™, a powerful and easy-to-use billing engine; LodeMap™, an end user application for viewing customer energy usage and costs; and LODESTAR Profile & Settlement System™, a cost-effective system for load profiling, reconciliation and settlement. For more information on LODESTAR Customer Choice Suite, visit www.lodestarcorp.com.

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