Nevada Senate approves cap on electricity rates

Tuesday, April 20, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Without debate, the Senate Monday approved a major bill that will cap power rates for consumers for three years when the state moves into the era of competition in the electric industry in March 2000.

The vote on SB438 was 18-2 with Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas dissenting. It now goes to the Assembly.

After passage, Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said "Everybody's protected" when deregulation arrives. And the public will have more options.

"They can leave on their own to buy a different kind of source, such as green power," he said. "They can leave to find a better deal. And at the same time, they don't have to do anything, which the current law would not have allowed them to do."

People who want to remain with their current supplier, such as Nevada Power Co. in Las Vegas, won't have to do anything to continue as a customer. After the expected rate increase by Nevada Power this summer -- possibly 4-5 percent -- the rates will remain stable until 2003.

Nevada Power plans to apply to recover past costs for higher than expected prices it paid for fuel. And that will be the last rate increase for three years.

Titus said the 1997 Legislature passed a "big deregulation bill. Why don't we let it work? We're moving further and further down that road. The rest of the country is stepping back and saying 'Let's take this gradually."'

"I just think this is stripping away too many consumer protections," Titus said.

Asked about the rate cap, Titus said that applies only to the basic rates. The rest of the rates on deregulated services can go up without regulation be the state. "You can't even look at their books," she said of the utilities.

"These deals were all worked out ... you know the big interests came together and they all bought off on it and they are all satisified.

"But the person who was absent in all that debate was the consumer," she said.

The bill overturns a regulation of the state Public Utilities Commission that prohibited Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power Co. from using their names and logos on affiliated companies that may be formed when competition arrives.

This rate freeze and bill is dependent on Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific completing their merger.

When combined, the utilities plan to sell off their generating plants and be in the distribution service.