March 3, 2000
Sierra Pacific Resources
Contact: Charles Fletcher
Phone: (775) 834-3959

For Immediate Release

Sierra Pacific Resources and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Sierra Pacific Power Company and Nevada Power Company, have commenced a public auction of approximately 2,900 MW of power generation facilities.

The generating facilities are being grouped into four asset bundles in Southern Nevada and three asset bundles in Northern Nevada. Power plants offered for sale include the Clark, Sunrise, Reid Gardner, and Harry Allen facilities in Southern Nevada, and the Valmy, Fort Churchill, Tracy and Piñon Pine facilities in Northern Nevada.

Preliminary information regarding the facilities and the auction process was sent this week to 600 potential bidders. The auction of the facilities will consist of a two stage, sealed-bid process. During the first stage of the auction, Sierra Pacific Resources will be seeking non-binding proposals for each of the asset bundles. Potential bidders may provide proposals for any one or a combination of the seven asset bundles. Currently, the first stage bids are scheduled to be due in April. Sierra Pacific Resources intends to complete the sale and transfer of its asset bundles by early 2001.

"These plants are valuable assets with great profit potential," said Jack Byrom, director of strategic business development for Sierra Pacific Resources."They will provide their new owners with both a substantial regional presence in the fastest-growing utility market in the nation and interconnections to many of the major energy markets on the West Coast and in the Great Basin region."

Byrom added that the outstanding performance of these plants, coupled with their strategic location in the West, places them in an excellent position to take full advantage of the new competitive market for power generation. By purchasing generation assets in both Northern and Southern Nevada, a company can enhance their value by providing access to multiple markets from various delivery points.

Each of the facilities offers a multitude of features including access to attractive commercial markets, locations close to major transportation corridors—including railways, operational flexibility, a highly skilled workforce and site-expansion capabilities.

The value of the Nevada Power generation facilities has been enhanced with the recent completion of the Crystal Transmission Project. This project greatly facilitates the import and export of electricity to and from Southern Nevada and surrounding areas and contains the world's largest phase-shifting transformers. It will create value for asset buyers because it provides power generators with great flexibility in transporting energy throughout the entire region.

Sierra Pacific Power's power plants offered for sale enjoy numerous advantages as well. They're geographically located throughout the high-growth areas of Northern Nevada, have access to inexpensive and plentiful natural gas, plentiful supplies of water, and are interconnected to an extensive transmission network with ample interconnection capability into multiple key attractive markets such as PG&E, Idaho Power, Intermountain Power, PacifiCorp, Southern California Edison, and the Bonneville Power Administration. The recent addition of the Alturas transmission project further enhances these advantages.