Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Mark Ruelle or Rich Atkinson
Phone: (775)834-5400 or (775)834-4358

For Immediate Release

Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP) shareholders, gathered in Reno today for their annual meeting, re-elected three members of their board of directors.

Re-elected to three-year terms were Sierra Pacific Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Walter M. Higgins; Edward P. Bliss, a partner in Loomis, Sayles&Co.; and Theodore J. Day, senior partner in Hale Day Gallagher Co.

The Sierra Pacific Resources Board also approved a quarterly dividend on common stock of 31 cents per share, payable Aug. 1, 1997, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 17, 1997.

Sierra Pacific Resources is a utility holding company whose principal subsidiary is Sierra Pacific Power Co., the electric utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California, and the natural gas and water distributor for the Reno-Sparks area.

Other subsidiaries include the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Co., which owns 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas transmission partnership; Lands of Sierra, a real estate management company; and e*three, an energy services company.