Silver Peak, Nevada

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Silver Peak (also Silverpeak) is an unincorporated community in Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States. It lies along State Route 265 south of U.S. Route 6 and west of Goldfield, the county seat of Esmeralda County.^[1] Its elevation is 4,321 feet (1,317 m), and it is located at 37°45′18″N, 117°38′5″W (37.7549309, -117.6348148).^[2] Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 89047.^[3]

[edit] Economy

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Silver Peak lies near a dry lake bed that is rich in lithium and other minerals. Silver Peak is currently the major supplier of lithium in the United States

The community gained some fame during California's 1999 electric power crisis. In the first major act of the power crisis causing an outage, on March 25, 1999, Enron energy traders allegedly rerouted 2,900MW (megawatts) of electricity destined for California to this small Nevada community. This caused a large shortage on the California power grid because the largest power feeder (intertie) from this area to California had a capacity of 15MW (about 0.5% of the required wheeling capacity).

News accounts claim this single action created an estimated $7 million dollars of revenue for Enron. The company was fined $25,000 for their action, suggesting to some that this was a viable way for the firm to make money.