Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Karen Foster
Phone: (775) 834-5683

For Immediate Release

For the third time in two weeks, record temperatures in northern Nevada pushed the demand for electricity to an all- time high. Sierra Pacific Power reached a record system peak of 1,657 megawatts at 5 p.m. yesterday.

Previous system peaks were reached on July 21, 2003 (1,619 megawatts); and July 22, 2003 (1,644 megawatts). Prior to this year's system peaks, the previous system peak was reached on July 10, 2002 (1,590 megawatts). The record peak is attributable to increased use of air conditioning equipment during the current heat wave, and to customer growth in Sierra Pacific's service area.

Sierra Pacific serves approximately 325,000 customers in northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California.

# # #