POWER September 2015 - 53

GENERATION TRANSITIONS
1. Hoover hydro has been a constant.
An NV Energy predecessor company
was one of the first buyers for Hoover Dam
hydropower. The facility continues to supply
235 MW to the utility's system. Courtesy: Gail
Reitenbach
Clark Station Evolves over Generations
NV Energy's Edward W. Clark Generating
Station, a few miles south of the Las Vegas
strip, has undergone a major transformation
over the years. The power company's
first generating plant, it was built to supplement
power the utility was buying from
the federal government's Hoover Dam. The
first, 70-MW gas-fired steam unit at Clark
went into service in 1955, soon joined by
two more units, increasing the output to
175 MW.
In the late 1970s, the utility began
transitioning the plant to modern gas
technology, adding four combustion turwill
be constructed and operated at costs that
are being recognized industry-wide as among
the lowest seen in the United States. "
Rob Roy, Switch founder and CEO, said,
" My goal for a number of years has been to
move Switch, and the customers we serve
through our full service data and technology
centers in Nevada, to 100 percent green, renewable
energy. Unfortunately, that program
was not made available under the previous
management at NV Energy. It is the primary
reason we chose to look last year at options
outside the NV Energy system. "
NV Energy's Geraghty said that the
Switch deal wasn't the first where the utility
would supply 100% green energy to a customer.
A year earlier, the company reached a
deal with Apple for a data center in northern
Nevada. " We agreed to supply them with
100% renewable energy from day one, " he
said. But the initial supply would be from
PPAs with geothermal plants at fairly high
prices. However, as part of the deal, Apple
agreed to pay for construction of a 20-MW
solar PV plant near the Apple center outside
Reno that displaces the more-expensive
geothermal energy.
From Hydro to Gas to Coal Power
The Switch switch highlights the evolution of
generating technologies that has been going
on in Nevada for decades. It has involved a
sometimes convoluted path, as described by
the website FundingUniverse. The predecessor
company, Southern Nevada Power, was
the first private-sector purchaser of power
from the 1,300-MW Hoover Dam (nee Boulder
Dam), built and owned by the U.S. Interior
Department's Bureau of Reclamation
and opened in 1936 (Figure 1).
Public power agencies had first preference
to buy power from the dam, and the state of
Nevada had a right to about 24% of the output,
second in line after the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California. Nevada sold
September 2015 | POWER
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the power to the local investor-owned utility.
In the 1950s, when Bugsy Siegel and the mob
brought legalized gambling to the Flamingo
resort and rapid and enormous growth to Las
Vegas, it became clear to the utility that its
share of the federal hydropower wasn't going
to be enough to meet the burgeoning load.
The company's initial generating move was
from Hoover Dam's hydro to utility-owned
gas-fired steam boilers at the Edward W. Clark
Generating Station, sited near Las Vegas and
bines. Then, in the 1993-1994 period,
the company added heat-recovery steam
turbine generators, positioning the plant
to be an intermediate-load and peaking
power generator. According to the utility,
" The newest plant additions include 12 FT8
Pratt & Whitney peaking units that can
provide up to 600 megawatts of electricity
to meet short-term customer needs. " The
quick-start units have a ramp-up time of
10 minutes, according to utility spokesman
Mark Severts. The plant now has nameplate
capacity of 1,103 MW. POWER named Clark
a Top Plant Award winner in 2009.
named for the long-time utility executive who
had negotiated the purchase of the Hoover
Dam hydro. The first Clark unit went into service
in 1955 and a second unit in 1957. A third
unit went commercial in 1961 (see sidebar).
At the same time it was serving the growing,
tourist-driven gambling business, the
utility was supplying power to the federal
government's Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) and its secretive but booming nuclear
weapons program activities, including the
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POWER September 2015

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