Water district makes power deal

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

Two power companies that have proposed plants for northeast of Las Vegas at Apex have been approved for water in exchange for a portion of their power.

The Las Vegas Water District on Tuesday granted the companies the right to lease rights to 1,400 acre feet of water a year over 25 years at an as-yet unspecified rate.

In return for having been granted the water rights, the companies agreed to supply the water district with 500 megawatts of power a year at below-market rates.

The companies, Duke Energy Moapa and Mirant Las Vegas, plan to build air-cooled power plants at Apex, about 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The combined generating capacity of both plants is 2,250 megawatts a year. That amount of power is nearly 50 percent of the total electricity needed to supply Southern Nevada on a hot summer day, water district and company officials said.

The 500 megawatts for the water district will be used to pump Lake Mead's water 35 miles, mostly uphill, to supply the Las Vegas Valley, water district General Manager Pat Mulroy said after the unanimous vote of the board.

"It's a unique agreement," Mulroy said. Exact terms of the contract have not been finalized.

"If you're going to use Nevada's water, you're going to have to leave some electricity in Nevada," Mulroy said.

The water district had secured the rights to 2,200 acre feet of ground water at Apex from the state engineer in March.

Duke and Mirant agreed to pay the district $22,275 each for the district's costs to file and secure the water rights.

Construction on Duke's plant is expected to begin in October, said Jimmy Rexroad, manager of business development, who attended the meeting. The plant will begin generating power in April 2003 and producing full power by June of that year.

The 25-year contract between Duke and the district could be renewed if water is available, he said.

County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said the contract is good for the water district and the community because the utility does not own the water.

"We are not selling the water rights, we are leasing them," Kincaid-Chauncy said during the board meeting.

Other companies are interested in working with the water district to exchange water and power, spokesman Vince Alberta said, but no other concrete proposals are expected in the near future.