Nevada Power Company is engaged in the electric utility business in the city of Las Vegas and parts of southern Nevada. The company provides electric energy services to nearly 1,361,700 customers in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Searchlight, Laughlin and Nellis Air Force Base. The electric services is also supplied to the Department of Energy at Mercury and jackass Flats in Nye County. The company has a total power generating capacity of 2,689 megawatts. Besides generating energy with company-owned facilities, the utility purchases a large portion of its customers' power needs from other utilities and independent power producers. The company also announced a merger of equals with Sierra Pacific Resources in April 1998.