GLENDALE : City to Sell Power to Nevada Utility

The Glendale City Council has approved a five-year, $6-million contract to sell electricity to the Nevada Power Co. during the summer months from 1996 to 2000, officials said.

The agreement allows the Las Vegas-based, privately owned company to use up to 30 megawatts of Glendale’s available power each summer between June 1 and Sept. 30, said Bill Hall, Glendale’s electrical services administrator. If Nevada Power were to exceed the 30-megawatt usage each year, the city stands to gain up to $1.4 million annually, Hall said.

“It’s just another source of income for the city,” he said. The expected windfall could also prompt city officials to reduce electric bills for Glendale’s 83,000 customers once the city receives monthly payments from Nevada Power.

Glendale operates its own electrical plant in the city but uses it only as a backup, Hall said. To provide electricity to its customers, the city taps into other sources, ranging from Hoover Dam to the Palo Verde power plant in Arizona to the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles.

The maximum power that the city can generate from all those sources is an estimated 400 megawatts a day, Hall said. The city’s public service office does not believe its customers will ever burn out that capacity, especially since the highest load recorded was only 284 megawatts a day during the summer of 1989.

“We have a pretty good estimate of what is happening, and we constantly monitor (usage),” Hall said. “We still think we’ll have excess capacity available” between 1996 and 2000.

Nevada Power officials could not be reached for comment.