Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp. announced Wednesday that it completed the acquisition of Avista Utilities’ natural gas retail operations in South Lake Tahoe, CA, serving about 18,600 customers in the mountains west of Reno. The transition will be completed Friday, Southwest said.

Southwest, whose major service areas are in rapidly growing areas of southern Nevada and parts of Arizona, along with the mountain-desert regions in the east part of Southern California, now has more than 40,000 customers in the north-central foothills and mountain areas in the Lake Tahoe Basin and Truckee, CA, about 40 to 50 miles east of Sacramento.

Residents and businesses previously served by a part of Spokane, WA-based Avista now will be getting their natural gas distribution services from Southwest from Sunday (May 1) onward. Southwest said it was mailing information with customer service and emergency phone numbers to the new customers.

Dennis Redmond, the Southwest vice president in charge of northern California-Nevada operations, said the company wants to assure the new customers “they will receive our continued commitment to providing safe and reliable natural gas service.” Southwest and Sierra Pacific Power Co. are the two remaining gas utilities serving the general Lake Tahoe area on either side of the California-Nevada border.

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