NATIONAL GRID TO MEET COMMITMENT FOR MORE THAN 90% RESTORATION OF LONG ISLAND POWER AUTHORITY CUSTOMERS

Company Responds to Comments from N.Y. Gov. Cuomo

National Grid is on track to restore power this evening to more than 90 percent of the 523,000 Long Island Power Authority customers impacted by Hurricane Irene, meeting a commitment National Grid and LIPA made at the start of the storm. It's expected 99 percent of the impacted customers will have power restored by Sunday.

Tom King, Executive Director and President of National Grid in the U.S., issued the following statement regarding the extensive restoration effort and comments from New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo regarding the restoration on Long Island after the historic devastation caused by Hurricane Irene:

"Electric customers on Long Island enjoy the highest electric reliability and experience the shortest outages of any overhead utility customers in New York, both for storms and non-storm events. We are very proud of the work our men and women are doing to restore power and the partnership we have with LIPA in working together to make the decisions that have led to such a successful restoration effort for Irene. We understand the frustration of Long Island Power Authority customers who have been without power since Hurricane Irene hit Long Island and the reason for Gov. Cuomo's focus on restoring power to the fewer than 10 percent of the impacted customers who will remain affected by Irene this evening. That's our focus, too."

King added:

"In support of LIPA's restoration efforts, National Grid continues to amass and manage the largest utility workforce to ever appear on Long Island, and has been restoring power around-the-clock, including using hundreds of workers from National Grid's downstate New York gas and power plant operations.

"After successfully meeting our obligation to address the devastation Irene caused to National Grid's upstate New York customers, hundreds of additional National Grid and contractor crews arrived on Long Island today. Our concentration for the next few days will be to continue to work with LIPA on restoration from one of the most devastating storms in Long Island's history. When we are done doing our job, we look forward to an honest and forthright assessment of our performance in the face of the conditions Hurricane Irene brought to Long Island and most of the U.S. East Coast."

National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.