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HARTFORD, Conn. & BOSTON--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU) is pleased to name William P. Herdegen III as the new President and Chief Operating Officer of Connecticut Light & Power. In this role, Herdegen will be responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of CL&Pas infrastructure, as well as the safe and reliable delivery of electricity to its 1.2 million customers.

"With a focus on operational excellence, customer service, emergency response and employee safety, Bill helped to drive significant improvements for Kansas City Power & Lightas customers"

Herdegen is a 35 year veteran of the utility industry, with extensive experience leading transmission and distribution operations. He began his career in Chicago, working for over 20 years with Unicom, now Exelon. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Transmission and Distribution Operations at Kansas City Power & Light, overseeing everything from maintenance to dispatch operations to engineering for more than 800,000 customers. Herdegen has an established track record of being a leader within the industry and maintains a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability.

aWith a focus on operational excellence, customer service, emergency response and employee safety, Bill helped to drive significant improvements for Kansas City Power & Lightas customers,a said Tom May, President and CEO of Northeast Utilities. aWe know Bill will bring that same level of commitment to Connecticut to ensure the continued delivery of reliable, safe electric service to our customers everyday, especially during storms and other emergencies.a

Herdegen is responsible for many successful initiatives at KCP&L including improvements to the companyas storm response plan that led to their ranking as one of the best in the country by CUBIC, a contractor for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, specializing in emergency response scenario planning and execution. He also helped the company achieve top-quartile reliability for the past nine years along with tier-one customer satisfaction ratings from JD Power & Associates, and contributed to vast improvements in the utilityas safety record.

Herdegen holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He will join CL&P on September 11 and will report directly to Lee Olivier, NUas Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

About NU

Northeast Utilities (NU) operates New Englandas largest energy delivery company. NU and its companies are committed to safety, reliability, environmental leadership and stewardship, as well as expanding energy options for its more than 3 million electric and natural gas customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Headquartered in Boston, MA and Hartford, CT, NU is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NU. Learn more about NU and its family of companies at nu.com.