Charles River Associates to Serve as the Economic Consultant to Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative in a $16 Million US Department of Energy Project

Charles River Associates (NASDAQ: CRAI), a worldwide leader in providing management, economic, and financial consulting services, today announced its role in serving as an economic consulting advisor to the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) as the EIPC studies the future needs of electric transmission infrastructure in the Eastern United States. Seeking to strengthen the country’s electrical grid infrastructure, the US Department of Energy has announced that the EIPC as well as state groups from the eastern interconnection will share in $60 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds to support the transmission planning process. On December 18, 2009, US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the EIPC had been selected to receive $16 million from the new stimulus funds.

"Charles River Associates is pleased to participate in this important Department of Energy initiative which will help move the United States towards a clean energy future,” said Paul Maleh, CRA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to offering our analytical expertise along with our industry experience in energy infrastructure and transmission planning to assist the EIPC in shaping its future regional energy structure.”

Encompassing the broad geographic region from Eastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, the EIPC is a pioneer, grass-roots effort being developed and led by 24 planning authorities from the United States and Canada to conduct transmission analyses at the interconnection level. Integral to the collaborative approach is the roll-up and analysis of existing regionally developed plans. The newly announced federal funds will be used to support this work.

Charles River Associates (CRA) will provide economic consulting services to EIPC and will be an integral member of the EIPC planning team. CRA’s responsibilities during Phase I of the project will include:

• Supporting the extensive EIPC stakeholder process throughout the project.
• Performing an economic analysis of the integrated regional plans using production cost modeling.
• Performing macroeconomic analyses to provide a high-level assessment of the outcomes of numerous proposed scenarios developed by stakeholders.
• Performing an economic analysis using production cost modeling for each of the final scenarios.
• Developing high level capital cost estimates for interregional generation resources in the final scenarios.
• Supporting the preparation and submission of the final Phase I report to the Department of Energy in June 2011.

CRA will provide similar economic consulting services to EIPC in Phase II of the project, leading to a final Phase II report in June 2013.

The EIPC’s proposal was submitted by eight of the regional planning authorities that are acting as the principal investigators on behalf of the overall interconnection group. The eight planning groups are NYISO; PJM Interconnection, LLC; ISO New England, Inc.; Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc., Southern Company Services, Inc. (as agent for Alabama Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Gulf Power Company, and Mississippi Power Company); Tennessee Valley Authority; Mid-Continent Area Power Pool (by and through its agent, MAPPCOR); and Entergy Services, Inc. on behalf of the Entergy Corporation Utility Operating Companies.

In addition to the eight principal investigators and EIPC regional planning authorities, other major participants on the EIPC’s proposed study in addition to Charles River Associates include Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Keystone Center. CRA’s project team will be led by Vice Presidents Aleksandr Rudkevich and Charles Trabandt from the Company’s Energy & Environment Practice.

About CRA’s Energy & Environment Practice

CRA's Energy & Environment Practice provides expert economic and business consulting services to a wide range of electricity industry clients around the world. With years of industry experience and exceptional strength in analytics, the practice's consultants offer management and economic expertise in every phase of the electricity production cycle--from fuel procurement to retail strategy--as well as hands-on experience helping clients manage market power, environmental policy and regulatory issues. CRA has pioneered techniques and models that have become industry standards, including competitive market designs, efficient bidding mechanisms, creative financial transactions and methodologies to assess market power.

About Charles River Associates (CRA)

Founded in 1965, Charles River Associates® is a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial and business management expertise to major law firms, businesses, accounting firms and governments. The Company's consultants combine uncommon analytical rigor with practical experience and in-depth understanding of industries and markets. CRA is adept at handling critical, tough assignments with high-stakes outcomes. The Company's analytical strength enables it to reach objective, factual conclusions that help clients make important business and policy decisions and resolve critical disputes. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Detailed information about Charles River Associates, a registered trade name of CRA International, Inc., is available at http://www.crai.com.

Statements in this press release concerning the expected use of CRA’s expertise, the EIPC project, the future business, operating results, estimated cost savings, and financial condition of the Company and statements using the terms "anticipates,” "believes,” "expects,” "should,” or similar expressions, are "forward-looking” statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon management's current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is inherently uncertain and actual performance and results may differ materially due to many important factors. Such factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements made by the Company include, among others, the Company’s restructuring costs and attributable annual cost savings, changes in the Company’s effective tax rate, share dilution from the Company’s convertible debt offering and stock-based compensation, dependence on key personnel, attracting and retaining qualified consultants, dependence on outside experts, utilization rates, factors related to its acquisitions, including integration of personnel, clients, offices, and unanticipated expenses and liabilities, the risk of impairment write downs to the Company’s intangible assets, including goodwill, if the Company’s enterprise value declines below certain levels, risks associated with acquisitions it may make in the future, risks inherent in international operations, the performance of NeuCo, changes in accounting standards, rules and regulations, changes in the law that affect its practice areas, management of new offices, the potential loss of clients, the ability of customers to terminate the Company’s engagements on short notice, dependence on the growth of the Company’s business consulting practice, the unpredictable nature of litigation-related projects, the ability of the Company to integrate successfully new consultants into its practice, general economic conditions, intense competition, risks inherent in litigation, and professional liability. Further information on these and other potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievement. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of its forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.