Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Gary Aldax
Phone: (775) 834-5508

For Immediate Release

Increased telephone and Internet options for Sierra Pacific Power Company customers have led to decreased walk-in volume in many of the company's district offices. As a result, Sierra Pacific will be discontinuing the business office functions in the company's South Lake Tahoe office, effective April 19.

Although walk-in service will no longer be available at this office, customers will still be able to start, stop, transfer service, make payment arrangements and discuss billing issues by telephone. To report an outage or for customer service, Battle Mountain customers should call (800) 962-4168. Field operations personnel will continue to be based in the area for system maintenance and outage response.

"Our customers have more options than ever before to conduct routine business office transactions,"said Gretchen Djukanovich, manager of customer contact."We are continually looking for ways to maximize efficiencies and develop more cost-effective ways of serving our customers."

Payments can still be made by U.S. Mail; by automatic withdrawal from the customer's bank account; and locally at Raley's Supermarket and Drug Centers, 4010 Hwy. 50, and 1040 Emerald Bay Road.More information about these payment optionsis available on the company's website.

Customers will receive notices in their Sierra Pacific bills regarding this change.