Constellation Energy Elevates Michael J. Wallace to Vice Chairman to Expand New Nuclear Strategy

BALTIMORE, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Constellation Energy NYSE: CEG today announced it has elevated Michael J. Wallace to the position of vice chairman, where he will lead and expand the development and deployment of the company's advancing new nuclear strategy and its international partnership, UniStar Nuclear Energy (UNE).

Constellation Energy also announced it has appointed Henry B. "Brew" Barron as president, chief executive officer and chief nuclear officer of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG). Brew Barron, a former Duke Energy executive with 35 years of energy industry experience, will join Constellation Energy on April 1, 2008, and immediately assume the duties held by Mike Heffley, CENG's senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. Heffley will retire May 1.

Wallace has been serving as executive vice president of Constellation Energy and president and chief executive officer of CENG, and will transfer those duties to Barron in several months. Wallace will continue to serve as chairman of UNE, a strategic joint venture between Constellation Energy and the EDF Group in France to develop new nuclear plants in North America. He will focus on leading and expanding the company's new nuclear strategy, including key relationship development.

George Vanderheyden continues his leadership role as president and chief executive officer of UNE.

"We've made exceptional progress in developing Constellation Energy's new nuclear strategy and establishing, through UniStar Nuclear Energy, a comprehensive and robust international partnership that is well-positioned to be a leader in the new nuclear renaissance," said Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Constellation Energy. "Mike Wallace brings the vision and unparalleled national and international credentials to guide the next phase of our new nuclear activities."

Wallace, who joined Constellation Energy in 2002, has more than three decades of nuclear utility experience, including responsibilities for project completion of two of the last nuclear plants built in the United States -- Commonwealth Edison's Braidwood and Byron nuclear stations. Wallace's appointment to vice chairman of Constellation Energy is effective immediately.

Barron's initial focus will be on the critical role of chief nuclear officer overseeing safe operation of Constellation Energy's nuclear plants. The fleet includes the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Md., the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Scriba, N.Y., and the Ginna Nuclear Power Station near Rochester, N.Y.

"Brew Barron's leadership skills and depth of experience are widely recognized within the industry," said Shattuck. "I am confident he will take our nuclear fleet to the next level of excellence by building on the solid performance gains under Mike Wallace's leadership."

In the past five years, CENG's total nuclear generation has increased 32 percent and the capacity factor of its five nuclear reactors increased to 93 percent, from 83.5 percent. In 2007, Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 in southern Maryland had the highest capacity factor in the world -- 102.33 percent.

Barron most recently served as group executive and chief nuclear officer for Duke Energy. He served in a variety of management roles at Duke's nuclear plants, and was vice president and general manager of nuclear operations at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory from 1994 to 1996, as part of the Duke Engineering & Services subsidiary. Barron is a member of the Accrediting Board of the National Academy for Nuclear Training, the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Advisory Council and has served as the chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI) Strategic Issues Advisory Committee.

A native of Fair Haven, N.J., Barron graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering. He is a past member of the American Nuclear Society where he served as chairman of the reactor operations division and chairman of the Piedmont/Carolinas Section.

Prior to joining Constellation Energy, Wallace was senior vice president with Unicom/ComEd of Illinois (now Exelon), a then $7 billion utility serving 3.4 million customers. He was also ComEd's chief nuclear officer, responsible for 12 nuclear generating units at six sites. Wallace is chairman of NEI's Security Working Group, chairman of the Nuclear Sector Coordinating Council under Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Protection Plan, chairman of the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security (PCIS), member of NEI's New Plant Oversight Steering Committee and a director of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited.

Constellation Energy (http://www.constellation.com), a FORTUNE 125 company with 2007 revenues of $21 billion, is the nation's largest competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers and the nation's largest wholesale power seller. Constellation Energy also manages fuels and energy services on behalf of energy-intensive industries and utilities. It owns a diversified fleet of 78 generating units located throughout the United States, totaling approximately 8,700 megawatts of generating capacity. The company delivers electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in Central Maryland.

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/084087.html/