<P> Nevada Power Company was a Las Vegas - based company that produced, distributed, and sold electricity in the southern part of the state of Nevada . In 2005, it had over 700,000 electric customers in parts of three Nevada counties--a service area of more than 4,000 square miles (10,000 km). In 1998, Nevada Power merged with Nevada's other major utility, Sierra Pacific Resources . It continued as a subsidiary of Sierra Pacific until 2005, when the company changed its name to NV Energy . </P> <P> Nevada Power was founded on March 20, 1906 as Consolidated Power and Telephone, the electric and telephone company for the year - old town of Las Vegas . It split into two companies in 1929 . The telephone company, Southern Nevada Telephone Company, eventually was acquired by Centel . It was later owned by Sprint and Embarq, and is now part of CenturyLink . The power company became Southern Nevada Power . In 1937, it became the first utility to receive power from the Hoover Dam . As the Las Vegas Valley boomed in the 1950s, its power needs exceeded the power available from the dam, and Southern Nevada Power began building its own steam turbines . After buying the Elko - Lamoille Power Company, it was renamed Nevada Power in 1961 . A year later, it became the first Nevada company on the New York Stock Exchange . </P>

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