PEPCO Declares Dividends and Reports First Quarter Earnings;
Redeems Preferred Stock

Dividends

        Following the Annual Meeting of Potomac Electric Power Company shareholders today, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend on common stock of 41- cents per share payable June 30, 1998, to shareholders of record on June 10, 1998. Dividends on preferred stock were declared payable June 1, 1998, to shareholders of record on May 4, 1998.

Earnings

        At the Company`s Annual Meeting earlier in the day, President and Chief Executive Officer John M. Derrick, Jr., announced consolidated earnings per share of 3 cents for the first quarter of 1998, compared with earnings of 16 cents per share in the first quarter of the previous year. For the 12 months ended March 31, 1998, consolidated earnings per share were $1.26, compared with earnings per share of $1.93 for the corresponding period ended March 31, 1997.

Redemption of Preferred Stock

        The Company also announced the redemption on June 1, 1998, of 60,000 shares of serial preferred stock, $3.37 series of 1987, at $50 per share for sinking fund purposes. The Company further announced the redemption on June 1, 1998, in accordance with their terms of all of the 779,696 shares remaining after the sinking fund redemption of serial preferred stock, $3.37 series of 1987, at $51.13 per share; all of the 500,000 shares of serial preferred stock, $3.82 series of 1969, at $51.00 per share; and all of the 1,000,000 shares of $3.89 series of 1991, at $53.89 per share.

Results from operations were: