San Francisco, CA - PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) announced Monday that its National Energy Group will pursue the Corporation's first project in Nevada through development of a 1,000-megawatt generating plant 45 miles northeast Las Vegas. The plant is designed primarily to serve the rapidly growing Nevada market. Because of its location near major electric transmission corridors, the plant also will play a major role in maintaining reliability in the overall western states power market.

The proposed Meadow Valley Generating Project will be located on a 160-acre site in northeastern Clark County near Moapa, Nevada. The PG&E National Energy Group (PG&E NEG) hopes to begin construction of the project during the fourth quarter of 2001, with completion expected by first quarter 2004.

"Southern Nevada has one of the most rapidly growing economies in the country," said Thomas B. King, president and COO of PG&E NEG, West Region. "Because of its location near Las Vegas, the Meadow Valley project will be ideally positioned to efficiently serve that demand growth."

The project is being developed as a merchant plant, which means the power will be sold into the competitive wholesale electricity market. When the power is not needed in Nevada, it will play an important role in helping to maintain reliability and stability in the overall western energy market. The Southern Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico region has a critical need for new generating resources to maintain reliability.

"The western market is a major focus for the PG&E National Energy Group," King said. "Through our generation assets, our gas transmission systems and our energy trading activities, we expect to play a significant role in meeting the growing energy demand in the western states."

With the Nevada project, the PG&E National Energy Group has a total of 4,000 megawatts in development or construction in the western states. This includes projects amounting to 1,500 megawatts in California, 500 megawatts in Oregon and 1000 megawatts in Arizona. The company already operates the 474-megawatt Hermiston Generating Plant in Eastern Oregon.

PG&E NEG also owns and operates a 612-mile natural gas pipeline system in the Pacific Northwest, and, with Sempra International, is developing a new 215-mile line from Ehrenburg, Arizona, to northern Baja California, Mexico.

Capable of generating enough electricity to serve 1 million homes, the Meadow Valley Generating Project will be fueled by clean-burning natural gas and it will be equipped with advanced-technology pollution control equipment to reduce its emissions. As a result, it will be one of the cleanest plants in the country. The plant will utilize combined-cycle technology to maximize efficiency, and it will incorporate water-saving technologies. Water for the project will be provided by the local water district through infrastructure to be built by PG&E NEG in connection with this project. The new infrastructure is expected to help the water district accommodate long-term growth in water demand in the region.

The plant will generate 800 local jobs during construction and 40 full-time, family wage positions when it begins commercial operation.

PG&E NEG has begun the process of securing all of the necessary federal, state and local permits for the projects. The proposed power plant site is a parcel of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land slated for disposal through a land exchange facilitated by the Clark County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan and The Nature Conservancy. The exchange, when completed, would provide for the protection of 1,600 acres of sensitive riparian lands along the Muddy River in Clark County and the Meadow Valley Wash in Lincoln County.

PG&E Corporation, with revenues of more that $20 billion and operations in 21 states, markets energy services and products throughout North America. The Corporation owns or controls some 7,000 megawatts across the nation and another 14,000 megawatts under development or construction. PG&E Corporation's businesses also include Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the Northern and Central California utility that deliver natural gas and electricity to one in every twenty Americans.