October 18, 2007
LC Power Looking to New Mexico for Additional Sources

By Dave Maxwell

With the cancellation of the Unit 3 coal fired power plant in Utah, Lincoln County Power is aggressively looking to New Mexico as a source of additional power for use in the county. Dave Luttrell, project manager, said at the October monthly power board meeting it should be expected that the Silver State Energy Association “will be a large component of our future supply needs.” He said Silver State is seeking to acquire a base-load resource and has put in an “indicative bid” for 134 megawatts from Public Service of New Mexico. This is the share of power PSNW has from the Palos Verde Nuclear Power plant in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 80 miles west of Phoenix. It is the second largest nuclear power generating plant in the country, with a capacity of 3,825 megawatts.

Silver State Energy Association is comprised of Lincoln County Power District, Overton Power District, City of Boulder City, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and the Colorado River Commission of Nevada, based in Las Vegas.

Luttrell said the non-binding indicative bid submitted by the group “is more than a basic expression of interest, it is to try to show them enough information that they will invite us to the table for negotiations as one of the finalists for the sale of their share of the 134 megawatts.”

Luttrell said Public Service of New Mexico, a tribal managed service, transferred a part of their native utility ownership in the Palos Verde power generating plant over to their marketing department, in order to divest themselves of the power marketing business. He said PSNM is “not selling off their native load ownership, rather they are selling off their marketing ownership. They decided being power marketers was not a good idea for them.”

Silver State will make a formal bid in November and LC Power Manager Mick Lloyd says they will just have to wait to see what happens after that.