Casinos, Water Authority succeed in effort to delay hearing on Nevada Power rates

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- District Judge Mike Griffin canceled a hearing set for Monday to decide if Nevada Power Co. should be allowed to immediately increase its rates to customers in Southern Nevada by $110.7 million.

Griffin, in an order signed Wednesday, said he wants to consider arguments that the suit filed by the utility should be dismissed because it was not properly prepared. The Southern Nevada Water Authority and three large Las Vegas casino companies complain the suit was defective because they were not named as parties.

Nevada Power filed a petition in July 1999 with the state Public Utilities Commission to increase rates by $44.3 million to be reimbursed for the higher costs of fuel it paid for. In September 1999, it sought to amend the rates to recover $110.7 million.

This was to be the last rate increase allowed for three years as deregulation of the electric industry was to start March 1. However that has been delayed.

The utilities commission in March this year decided Nevada Power must reduce rates by $9 million rather than increasing them. The company filed suit March 30 to overturn the decision.

A hearing had been set for Monday on the motion by Nevada Power for a preliminary injunction to put the rates into effect immediately pending the outcome of the full case.

But the water authority, Mirage Resorts Inc., Park Place Entertainment Corp. and Mandalay Resort Group filed a petition with the court, saying Nevada Power failed to name them as defendants in the suit. They had participated as intervenors in the rate case before the utilities commission, asking that Nevada Power not get a rate hike.

Because of this defect, the casinos and water authority want the suit dismissed. They said they have a substantial interest in the outcome, which would mean higher rates for them.

William Peterson and Elizabeth Elliot, attorneys for Nevada Power, said intervenors in the administrative hearings before the utilities commission need not be named as parties to any judicial action. In most court cases, they said the intervenors are not named as defendants.

Even if the suit is defective, Peterson and Elliot said it should not be tossed out. Instead Judge Griffin should order the utility to name those parties as defendants.

Peterson and Elliot, in a written motion, argued against delaying the Monday hearing.

Griffin, in calling off the hearing, said the casino companies and the water authorities must submit their briefs by Monday.

The Utility Shareholders Association has joined in the suit as an intervenor to support Nevada Power.