[The Global Power Company Letter Head]                             NEWS RELEASE
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                                                    Contact: Kenneth R. Woodcock
                                                                  (703) 522-1315

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                        AES ACKNOWLEDGES NEW LAW IN CHILE

ARLINGTON, VA, December 22, 2000 -- The AES Corporation today confirmed that the
new tender offer law in Chile was enacted on December 20. The law requires any
person after acquiring control of 66 2/3% or more of the voting power of a
company such as Gener, to conduct a tender offer for all the remaining shares of
the company within 30 days following such acquisition of control. Although there
have been different interpretations and because the law is newly adopted there
are no precedents, AES understands that the provision of the new law requiring
such an offer states that the price per share in such offer is to be no less
than the weighted average trading price of the company's shares on stock
exchanges in Chile during the two months preceding such acquisition of control.
The law also provides that if the acquiring person failed to hold such a tender
offer, holders of remaining shares would be entitled to the statutory withdrawal
rights which essentially would allow them to sell their stock to the company,
then controlled by the acquiring person, at a price per share equal to the
weighted average trading price of the shares on stock exchanges in Chile during
the two months preceding the expiration of such 30-day period. In these
circumstances, the actual price would be determined based on such calculation of
trading prices and the date of acquiring control, which price could be the same
as the offer or higher or lower. AES understands that before any such offer
under the new Chilean tender offer law would be required to be made, that the
Chilean Securities Regulatory Agency would provide definitive guidance on the
interpretation of the new law.

AES is a leading global power company comprised of competitive generation,
distribution and retail supply businesses in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh,
Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Georgia,
Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Sri
Lanka, the United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela.

The company's generating assets include interests in one hundred and thirty nine
facilities totaling over 49 gigawatts of capacity. AES's electricity
distribution network has over 920,000 km of conductor and associated rights of
way and sells over 126,000 gigawatt hours per year to over 17 million end-use
customers. In addition, through its various retail electricity supply
businesses, the company sells electricity to over 154,000 end-use customers.

AES is dedicated to providing electricity worldwide in a socially responsible
way.

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For more general information visit our web site at www.aesc.com or contact
investor relations at investing@aesc.com. The list aes-pr-announce is an
automated mailing list and can be found on the investing page of our web site.
Those who subscribe to this list will receive updates when AES issues a press
release.
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