January 20, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

My last working experience with Vernon Rowe was during the 2006 Fall Outage Season. I was working at the Effingham County Plant as the Outage Manager, where I started in late June 2006. The Fall 2006 plant scheduled outage work scope included a combustion component replacement on the Unit 2 gas turbine (General Electric 7FA+e), major inspections and piping seal replacements on both heat recovery steam generators (HRSG’s), inspection, repair, and testing of all HRSG and high energy piping safety appliances, and potential inspection and repair of the steam turbine (Toshiba) combined reheat stop intercept valves. No advance work scope planning, estimates, or quotations had been prepared prior to my arrival at the Effingham County Plant.

Vernon assisted me with the preparation and distribution of RFQ’s for the gas turbine combustion component replacement including a recommended list of qualified contractors. In addition, Vernon made the arrangements for the combustion component replacement qualified contractor pre-bid work scope/project review meeting. He participated in the contractor pre-bid meeting and assisted me with the contractor technical evaluation.

In addition to Vernon’s assistance with the gas turbine combustion component replacement, he also provided all coordination with Toshiba in securing the steam turbine combined reheat stop intercept valve parts (quotations, PO’s, and expediting) and securing Toshiba Service Engineers for the outage. Vernon also prepared and issued the PO’s and expedited the parts for the HRSG seals, safety appliances, and steam dump system control valves.

The Fall 2006 Effingham County Plant Scheduled Outage required seventeen (17) individual contractors to complete the planned and emergent work scope.

The outage work scope was completed five (5) days ahead of schedule and within the estimated budget. These positive outage accomplishments could not have been completed without the dedicated assistance from Vernon Rowe.

Thank you,

Scott Trantham, P.E.Retired Progress Energy Employee