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APX Appointed the Default Electric Power Scheduler for ERCOT

Contract to Aid Reliability of New ERCOT Control Area

Houston, Texas - August 6, 2001 - APX Inc., a provider of online market services for the electric power industry, today announced that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has awarded APX a contract to provide all default Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE) services for wholesale electric power.

The APX service will be provided in ERCOT's new single control area, which opened July 31, to assure interruption-free power scheduling when an assigned QSE is unable to perform. Fail-safe power scheduling aids ERCOT in its reliability responsibility, which requires precise balancing of the amount of power going into and being consumed from the transmission grid.

"ERCOT evaluated proposals from multiple vendors for the default QSE service," said Tom Noel, CEO of ERCOT. "APX was selected due to its scheduling capabilities and its ability to meet ERCOT technical, reliability, and readiness requirements."

Interim default QSE services will be provided by APX for competitive retailers, municipal and cooperative power companies, generators, and power marketers whose assigned QSE becomes unable to function due to technical or business reasons or loss of ERCOT qualification.

In a default, ERCOT will transfer the scheduling function to APX for a period of 72 hours to ensure transmission system reliability until the participant can sign up with a new permanent QSE. APX will electronically submit to ERCOT the schedules that detail the amount of electric power the market participant will deliver to and/or use from the transmission grid the next day. APX also will perform financial settlements with ERCOT and between itself and market participants. The around-the-clock service will be operated from the APX Houston and Silicon Valley offices.

In addition, APX has been selected as the assigned QSE by several major market participants and is operating the APX ERCOT Market for online trading of physical power. As the only independent QSE and exchange market operator in ERCOT, APX offers its clients the assurance that their transaction details will not be used to compete with them in buying or selling power.

The default QSE contract is the second APX contract with ERCOT. In 2000 ERCOT awarded APX a contract for more than $500,000 to develop the computer system for the implementation of the Texas Renewable Energy Credit (REC) Program. APX delivered the system April 10, 2001.