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.