Nevada Power Co. Struggles To Recover After Hard Blows
Nevada Power Co. was broadsided by Californias energy crisis in 2000-01. Tightened credit halted construction by the private-power developers that it was counting on for electricity supplies. And it was left holding the bag for $437 million of energy costs disallowed by the state Public Utilities Commission. The Las Vegas-based utility saw its bond ratings reduced to junk and it has been trying to make up lost ground ever since.
Nevada Power Co. has been making progress catching up from the deficit of a few years before, says Neill Dimmick, deputy direc-tor of the Nevada State Office of Energy. In October 2004, Nevada Power purchased a partially constructed four-unit, 1,200-MW, natural-gas-fired combined-cycle powerplant from developer Duke Energy in the Moapa Valley, 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas, for $250 million. This summer, the former Duke plant, renamed the Chuck Lenzie Generating Station, will begin commercial operation following expenditure of $308 million to complete construction.