By Daniel Rothberg, Las Vegas Sun

NV Energy does not expect to build a new fossil fuel power plant in the next decade, making it unlikely that it will go forward with a controversial $1 billion natural gas plant that the utility had proposed last fall.

The utility, instead, signed an agreement early last month to purchase an existing Arizona natural gas plant, according to a recent federal regulatory filing. Pending state and federal approval, NV Energy would close on Calpine’s South Point Energy Center no later than the first quarter of 2017.

That same year, NV Energy is scheduled to complete a shutdown of the Reid Gardner coal-fired plant and will lose another power source with the expiration of a 10-year contract with a natural gas plant in Arizona. While the purchase of the South Point plant was largely done to replace the natural gas power that will be lost from Arizona, it comes when state energy leaders are grappling with whether the utility should invest more in renewables.

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