RALEIGH, N.C. (November 26, 2002) -- With Thanksgiving right around the corner, Progress Energy is prepared to handle power outages caused by pesky squirrels and other small animals. Many outages during fall months are caused by squirrel activity around power lines and transformers. This time of year, before winter's chill sets in, squirrels and other animals are actively storing nuts for the winter. This increased activity can cause both instantaneous outages as well as extended power outages. Most often, squirrels cause outages by:

• Walking or playing on power lines
• Chewing on power lines
• Tripping on or getting caught in power lines
• Sitting or walking on transformers

"Squirrels are more active in fall months as they gather nuts to prepare for survival during the winter," said Les Hunter, CP&L's senior forester. "Squirrels also have an innate need to chew and, unfortunately, they sometimes choose to chew on power lines in order to sharpen and clean their teeth. While this type of activity can cause power outages, our line and servicemen are well-prepared to repair any squirrel damage and restore power as quickly as possible."

When squirrels walk or play on power lines, they sometimes trigger a safety mechanism that causes the line to short-out, creating an instantaneous power outage. Once the safety mechanism is triggered, the device automatically resets itself and customers may only experience a brief flicker of lights and appliances. When a squirrel chews through a power line or comes into contact with a transformer, it may cause a power outage more noticeable by the customer. Once the outage occurs, CP&L line and servicemen are dispatched to the site of squirrel damage and can quickly make repairs and restore power. If customers experience an outage, they are encouraged to call the CP&L customer service center at 800-452-2777.

Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 21,800 megawatts of generation capacity and $8 billion in annual revenues. The company's holdings include two electric utilities (CP&L and Florida Power), serving more than 2.9 million customers across the Carolinas and Florida. Progress Energy also includes non-regulated operations (Progress Ventures) covering merchant generation, energy marketing and trading, fuel extraction (Progress Fuels), rail services (Progress Rail) and broadband capacity (Progress Telecom). For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company's Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com.

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Contact: Corporate Communications (919) 546-6189 or (877) 641-NEWS