Nevada Power hopes to recover $4 million for fuel costs

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 12:27 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- A district judge ruled the Nevada Public Utilities Commission erred in the handling of a rate change request by Nevada Power Co.

The decision by District Judge Mike Griffin of Carson City means the utility was shortchanged by $4 million in its rate case, Robert Crowell, attorney for Nevada Power, said Monday.

Judy Sheldrew, chairwoman of the utilities commission, said the court ruled on only seven or eight issues in the case.

She said she was "unable to determine the bottom line" on the amount that may or may not be due Nevada Power.

"This is only a partial decision," Sheldrew said. And the remaining issues needed to be decided.

Crowell said the ruling came in a deferred energy case in which Nevada Power sought to recover money it paid for higher than expected costs of fuel. The decision, he said, means shareholders are owed $4 million.

The utilities commission ruled that Nevada Power was the 100 percent shareholder in Northwest Properties, a coal mine in Utah that supplied fuel to the Reid Gardner generating plant in Southern Nevada.

The judge said the decision by the utilities commission is contrary to its prior decision that the California Department of Water Resources owned 90.4 percent of the same property.

Griffin said the commission's finding "was clearly erroneous." The California agency later sold the coal mine to a subsidiary of Nevada Power. The judge said it was unclear whether the subsidiary purchased the mine for itself or for Nevada Power.

Griffin sent the issue back to the utilities commission, telling it to find that the California agency owned the mine and later sold it Nevada Electric Investment Co., a subsidiary of Nevada Power.

Sheldrew said commission lawyers are reviewing the ruling.