Sierra Pacific Power Company's Fort Churchill Generating Station is getting ready to celebrate 18 years without a lost time injury at the power plant. Next month, the facility's 36 employees will celebrate some 1.3 million man-hours that have been worked to generate electricity and keep the power flowing to northern Nevadans. Sierra Pacific Power Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP).

"Safety is our number one priority, for our employees and our customers," said Mark Sandoval, Generation Executive for the company. "The employees at Fort Churchill exemplify the importance that management and employees place on doing their daily jobs safely."

Beginning in 1987 through March 2005, Fort Churchill employees will have worked 6,570 days without sustaining any injuries that would require them to take time off from work. The plant operates with two, 12-hour work shifts daily, 365 days per year.

According to Sandoval, checks with electric industry organizations indicate that no other power plant, gas or oil processing or producing plants in the nation have achieved anywhere near the longevity of the Fort Churchill plant's safety record.

The plant's manager, Wade Barcellos, cites several factors for the facility's extraordinary record. "The average tenure of employees at Fort Churchill not coincidentally is about 18 years. So we have knowledgeable, well trained employees who understand the importance of safely doing their jobs."

Barcellos also attributes the long safety record to a sense of community with most of the plant's employees living in and around the nearby community of Yerington as friends and neighbors.

The station is located in Wabuska, Nevada, about ten miles north of Yerington, in Lyon County, Nevada. Operational since 1968, the plant's two 110 megawatt generators primarily burn natural gas to generate electricity, but are also capable of using oil as their source of fuel. On an average day, the plant generates enough electricity to supply approximately 100,000 homes and businesses in northern Nevada.

Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Sierra Pacific Power Company is the principal utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP), which also is the holding company for Nevada Power Company, the electric utility for southern Nevada. Sierra Pacific Power also distributes natural gas in the Reno-Sparks area of northern Nevada. Other subsidiaries of Sierra Pacific Resources include the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company, which owns 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas transmission partnership.

SOURCE: Sierra Pacific Power Company

CONTACT: Media, Faye I. Andersen of Sierra Pacific Resources,
+1-775-834-4822