Utah group bidding for Nevada power plant

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

The Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems, an organization comprised of 40 municipal power systems in Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, will be a bidder when Nevada Power Co. sells its Reid Gardner power plant next January.

Nevada Power officials won't say how many are expected to bid on the Reid Gardner plant, but the company sent information to about 600 prospective bidders.

Governing boards of Utah association members are voting to give the organization permission to bid on the 605-megawatt coal-fired plant at Moapa, about 50 miles north of Las Vegas.

The association's membership includes municipal utility companies and service districts. There are two in Arizona and one each in Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada, with the rest in Utah. Fallon is the Nevada member.

The Reid Gardner complex, which includes four generators, is Nevada Power's second-largest power plant.

Nevada Power has three other big plants that will be sold, all located in the Las Vegas area. The company has a small percentage ownership in other plants in Laughlin and in Arizona.

The plants being sold have a depreciated value of about $545 million to Nevada Power, but company officials have said that in recent transactions in other states, plants have sold between 110 percent and 200 percent of book value.