Sierra Pacific Power Company
Contact: Karl Walquist/Bob Sagan
Phone: (775)834-4835

For Immediate Release

Sierra Pacific Power will continue serving electric customers in the Fallon-Fernley area as the result of a long-term lease signed Aug. 16 with the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID).

"This agreement is good for TCID, for our customers and the Sierra Pacific employees out in the Fallon area. We look forward to continuing to provide good customer service in Fallon and to being an active part of the community," said Sierra Pacific's Jeff Ceccarelli, vice president, Distribution, as he met with TCID officials to sign the 50-year lease of TCID electric distribution facilities consisting of electric power lines and substations.

TCID will receive a one-time payment of $275,000 at the beginning of the lease, plus a back lease payment of all outstanding payments that would have accrued under the old 30-year lease agreement, which expired in July of 1998. TCID will receive annual rent payments of approximately $500,000. In addition, TCID will retain and control operation of the hydroelectric generating plants at Lahontan and the 26 Foot Drop, a small hydroelectric facility located on an irrigation canal.

The agreement affects about 11,000 customers in Churchill County, Fernley, Wadsworth and Nixon. (The City of Fallon operates its own municipal electric system and buys power on a wholesale basis from Sierra Pacific.)