As part of a goal to further reduce Nevada’s carbon emissions, Las Vegas-based NV Energy has taken down the fourth and final unit of its 257 MW coal-fired Reid Gardner Generating Station.
Thus, the facility is no longer providing energy to the southern Nevada electric grid. The full closure of the facility was completed nine months ahead of schedule, says NV Energy.
The Reid Gardner Generating Station, located north of Las Vegas, began serving NV Energy customers in 1965. During its peak operation time, the plant provided enough power to serve nearly 335,000 Nevada households, according to the company.
“We are proud to be moving our state toward a more balanced and less carbon-intense generation portfolio through coal-generation retirement and renewable energy development – while keeping prices low for our customers,” says Starla Lacy, vice president of environmental services. “The renewable energy capacity NV Energy has secured for customers has seven times the capacity of the generating unit that was taken off the grid today.”
Currently, NV Energy customers are served by more than 1.9 GW of renewable resources in Nevada, including one large wind farm; 19 geothermal energy resources; 14 solar energy facilities; six hydro plants; and a variety of biomass, methane and other renewable energy projects.
NV Energy retired Reid Gardner’s first three 100 MW units at the end of 2014. The company will also eliminate its generation from the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station by December 2019.
Approximately 40 employees currently work at the plant, but no jobs will be lost due to the closure of the facility, NV Energy notes. Instead, a number of these employees will go to work at other NV Energy facilities, and the rest will remain at Reid Gardner to support the ongoing decommissioning, plant dismantlement and environmental-remediation efforts.
