Nevada Plant To Be Running by April

LAS VEGAS -- - The new 533-megawatt, gas-fired generating plant belonging to Mirant Corp. is blasting out steam in the Apex industrial area as the operators prepare for the scheduled start of commercial operations in early April.

That's good news for the Las Vegas area, which needs more electrical power as its population grows.

"As Nevada's power needs increase, Mirant wants to be here to supply it," said Pat Dorinson, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based independent power producer.

Mirant was one of several merchant power companies that converged on Las Vegas a couple of years ago with proposals for new plants that would generate electricity for sale in Southern Nevada, Southern California and Arizona.

Wholesale power prices were soaring as utilities, municipalities and industries competed for scarce electricity. Unregulated power producers, like Mirant, saw an opportunity to profit and began a race to win approval and build plants.

The promise of big profits disappeared like a desert mirage as the slowing economy reduced demand and energy supplies increased. The producers plans were also hurt after Enron Corp. went bankrupt, drawing the attention of politicians, prosecutors and regulators concerned about allegations that the energy markets were manipulated.

The Public Utilities Commission now counts five projects with a proposed generating capacity of 4,276 megawatts that have been delayed, some indefinitely. (The PUC estimates that one megawatt is enough electricity for 550 households in Southern Nevada during an average month.)

Duke Energy owns one of the delayed projects. It was half-finished with a 1,200-megawatt, gas-fired plant when it temporarily halted construction in September. Many other projects never got off the drawing board.

However, Black Hill's Energy started delivering power from a 230-megawatt, water-cooled project in North Las Vegas in January. Mirant is slated to open next, and Reliant Energy's 550-megawatt plant at Primm is scheduled to open in the fall, according to the PUC.

An increase in the supply of power available in the Las Vegas area will result in lower power expenses for retail customers, said Steven Boss, president of Nevada Energy Buyer's Network.

The plants also will improve power reliability for Nevada Power, he said.

Mirant's project has the potential to alleviate congestion on heavily used transmission lines in the Las Vegas area. Black Hill's unit and Reliant's Bighorn power plant projects will definitely provide this benefit, he said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has decided that large power customers that win approval to buy electricity from competitors of Nevada Power are entitled to continue getting transmission rights equal to what they were using while on the utility's system.

The scarcity of water in the desert was another problem for independent power producers. Mirant's plant uses air-cooled technology to reduce its water requirements. The plant consumes 30 gallons of water a minute, but a water-cooled plant would use 3,000 to 5,000 gallons, said Monte Ash, plant manager.

Mirant has contracted to sell some of the power from the Apex Generating Station and is working on other power sales contracts, the company said.

Construction of the plant started in 2001, and employment peaked with about 500 people. The facility will employ 27 permanent workers.

Mirant has not announced when it may start construction of a second, 550-megawatt phase of the Apex plant.

Meanwhile, an affiliate of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. started building the 570-megawatt Silverhawk in August and plans to complete it in mid-2004.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority is a partner in the Silverhawk project.