Valley Electric Association directors voted to expand the board from four to six members, creating two new districts, at the monthly meeting Wednesday.

The bylaw change will be put before VEA members for a vote at the annual meeting in Beatty April 19. Members can vote by mail this year, in a bylaw change approved last year.

A new district will be created for Clark County including Sandy Valley, Mountain Springs and Trout Canyon. Pahrump would get two districts instead of one, dividing the town at Highway 372.

There are only four VEA board members, one each for Pahrump, Amargosa Valley, Beatty and Fish Lake Valley. The director for Pahrump, Brent Crowther, represents 94 percent of the accounts for the cooperative.

The VEA board also heard Chief Executive Officer Tom Husted give the unofficial budget figures for 2007.

"The bottom line is we ended the year extremely well, comparable to last year," Husted said.

The cooperative added 898 new accounts in 2007, less than the 1,211 new accounts in 2006, bringing the membership up to 23,653. But he noted, "There is a jump this last month that's attributed to the new idle service policy."

VEA passed a new policy last year, charging customers where transmission lines have been hooked up but have yet to be tied on.

The cooperative realized unaudited operating revenues of $51.1 million last year, up from $47 million in 2006, Husted said.

The cost of purchasing power was $28.9 million, out of the $40.5 million operating and maintenance budget, Husted said. Interest on the $61.6 million in long term debt amounted to $3.6 million last year, he said.

"Total cost of electric services last year was $47.6 million as opposed to $42.4 million the previous year," Husted said. That increase was attributed to the rising cost of power -- the cooperative buys power at 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour -- and the gradually rising interest rates.

The $4 million profit in 2007 compares to $4.5 million in 2006, but will go up slightly after annual adjustments, he said.

Husted expects the $158.9 million in cooperative assets to increase 21 percent this year, as the co-op has an ambitious project to build a 238-kilovolt power line around Mt. Sterling and a loop around the Pahrump Valley.

The newly enacted impact fees on new construction, which have been in effect for two months, generated $26,737 in December and $87,652 for 2007, he said.

In his CEO's report, Husted said he held more discussions with Royal Bank of Scotland on building a gas-fired power plant in Nye County. But he said the plans will be on hold until Royal Bank of Scotland's acquisition of Sempra Utilities is approved.

Husted said the decision on whether to build a plant depends on available water, customer base, availability of transmission lines and property.

"There's a deficit of power in Nevada, specifically Southern Nevada, so there's a huge need," Husted said. "Will this go? I don't know. But some things are going to go."

Both parties are signing a confidentiality agreement.

VEA is close to completing an agreement with Ausra Inc., which wants to build a solar power plant in Amargosa Valley. The agreement will allow Ausra to use the cooperative's transmission lines, Husted said.

Ausra is currently building a 180-megawatt power plant in a project with Pacific Gas and Electric on 640 acres in Central California, which is expected to go on line in 2010.