National Grid Partners with Local Communities to Celebrate Earth Day 2012

WALTHAM, MA (04/19/2012)(readMedia)-- National Grid will be focused on community "greening" as company volunteers roll up their sleeves and celebrate Earth Day with 10 community events this year, featuring more than 700 volunteer employees who will help revitalize local communities served by the company. These events, coupled with the culmination of a creative campaign designed to celebrate ENERGY STAR's 20th birthday, give back to the community and promote protecting the environment, now and for future generations.

"Earth Day inspires individuals and organizations around the world to take action on behalf of the environment. We live, work and serve customers in these communities and it's fitting that with these special Earth Day projects, we work side-by-side to care for the special open places that sustain us all," said Tom King, president, National Grid USA. "At National Grid, Earth Day is every day and we're proud to have so many employee volunteers lead by example with their dedication to the environment."

Company sponsored events, which run through May 11, will be held in Albany, Syracuse, Niagara Falls, Queens, and Long Island, N.Y.; Westerly, R.I.; and Worcester, Westborough, and Waltham, Mass. National Grid employee volunteers will help clean up parks and beaches, construct neighborhood gardens, plant trees, paint and rehab buildings and benches, and construct fences.

National Grid also will celebrate ENERGY STAR's 20th birthday during its Earth Day festivities. At each community event, volunteers will wear Happy 20th Birthday ENERGY STAR t-shirts, designed by the winners of an elementary school Earth Day art contest sponsored by National Grid and the Green Education Foundation.

More than 1,500 students from across New England and New York participated in the contest by submitting designs that express birthday wishes to ENERGY STAR and showcased their ideas on how people can work together to protect the planet.

New England volunteers will wear the winning t-shirt design submitted by Dylan Zhou, a 6th grader at Holy Name Elementary School in West Roxbury, MA, and NY volunteers will wear the winning t-shirt design submitted by Eileen Cha, a 5th grader from Summit Lane Elementary School in Levittown, NY. Each finalist's school will receive a $250 cash award from National Grid.

About National Grid

National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE:NGG) is an electricity and gas company that connects consumers to energy sources through its networks. The company is at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing our society - to create new, sustainable energy solutions for the future and developing an energy system that underpins economic prosperity in the 21st century. National Grid holds a vital position at the center of the energy system and it 'joins everything up'.

In the northeast US, we connect more than seven million gas and electric customers to vital energy sources, essential for our modern lifestyles. In Great Britain, we run the gas and electricity systems that our society is built on, delivering gas and electricity across the country.

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

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