Nevada Power Rate Decision to Result in 6.3 Percent Decrease for Customers

    LAS VEGAS, May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Public Utilities Commission of
Nevada (PUCN) today finalized an order allowing Nevada Power Company, a
subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP), to recover, over three
years, approximately $148 million of $195 million in deferred energy costs
incurred by the company from October 1, 2001, through September 30, 2002.
    Today's PUCN order also provides for the base tariff energy rate (going
forward rate) to be set at approximately $42 per MWh, which will result in an
overall 6.3 percent decrease for a typical Nevada Power residential customer.
The rate reduction will become effective May 19, 2003.
    Before the $47 million disallowance of deferred energy costs for fuel and
purchased power, the overall rate decrease, which had been proposed by the
company, would have been 5.3 percent for Nevada Power customers.
    Senior management of Sierra Pacific Resources will discuss this and other
regulatory issues, the previously announced first quarter 2003 financial
results, and other company matters during a conference call and webcast on
Thursday, May 15, at 8 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.  Interested parties can
access a webcast of the call with the following link:

               http://webcast.on24.com/clients/srp/030515.html

    The webcast will be accessible on the Sierra Pacific Resources' web site
at

            http://www.sierrapacificresources.com/investors/news /

    An archived version of the webcast will remain on the Sierra Pacific
Resources web site for approximately one month following the live webcast.
    To listen to a recording of the call by telephone, call 888-211-2648 and
use the conference call ID number, 3540244, to access the recording.

    Headquartered in Nevada, Sierra Pacific Resources is a holding company
whose principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power Company, the electric utility
for most of southern Nevada, and Sierra Pacific Power Company, the electric
utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California.
Sierra Pacific Power Company also distributes natural gas in the Reno- Sparks
area of northern Nevada.  Other subsidiaries include the Tuscarora Gas
Pipeline Company, which owns a 50 percent interest in an interstate natural
gas transmission partnership, several unregulated energy services companies
and Sierra Pacific Communications, a telecommunications network development
company.

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