New deal signed for power

Nevada Free State to connect to ISA grid

LAS VEGAS, N.F.S. (RWN) - Nevada Free State will link its power grid to the existing grid in the southwestern Islamic States, negotiators announced today.

The agreement will enable the free state to transfer excess power from its hydroelectric and geothermal plants to southern California when California can't meet the demand.

"One of the few things that worked well in the old days was WAPA, the Western Area Power Administration, which would move electricity seamlessly throughout the West to wherever it was needed," said Stephen Mufani, the Islamic States' chief negotiator. "This recreates that. The Nevada Free State has excess power, between what's made at Lake Mead and what they've developed with geothermal and wind power. This will let them make a profit and allow southern California to continue its unabashed use of power."

California, particularly the southern part, has been a spur underneath the I.S. power saddle for years, due to its high population and hot summers. The western power grid has crashed three times in the last five years due to southern California power demands.

"This will help the situation," wrote Shaun Kidder, a power expert and blogger. "But it won't fix it. Power supply has been a problem for SoCal, but infrastructure is the foundational problem. If the ISA had invested in its infrastructure over the last 20 years, it wouldn't lose so much power to poorly insulated lines and in its archaic switching facilities."

The new deal is expected to provide 5,700 kilowatts of power to southern California.
It will cost about $7 million to build the facilities that will allow Nevada Free State to connect to the ISA grid, said Albert Fallon, the state's power administrator.

"It's a lot of money on the front end, but it's a 20-year-contract," he said. "If they have a hot summer, we'll make it back in a year. That's a pretty good return-on-investment. We have power to spare -- with any kind of decent snowfall in the Rockies, the Colorado's great, the geothermal wells out near Searchlight have surpassed our wildest expectations and the wind project up near Reno is online and producing enough to power Reno."


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