PUC: Nevada Power too quick with suit

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

The state Public Utilities Commission believes Nevada Power Co. should have exhausted its administrative remedies before suing the regulators over a ruling that the company said put it in financial jeopardy.

The PUC filed a motion Friday in District Court in Carson City asking to be dismissed as a defendant in a Nevada Power lawsuit. The utility alleged that the regulators erred on March 29 when they granted the company only $485 million of the $922 million it was seeking from rate payers for energy used last year.

Nevada Power spokeswoman Andrea Smith said the company is reviewing the motion but had no further comment.

In its motion the PUC argued that Nevada Power failed to ask the commission for reconsideration. The deadline to file for reconsideration expired on April 15.

"In cases such as the present action, where a matter is simultaneously pending before a court and an administrative agency, the courts have relied on the doctrine of 'primary jurisdiction' in determining not to decide an issue within the jurisdiction of an agency until the agency has rendered its final decision," the PUC motion stated.

Two critics of Nevada Power, the state Bureau of Consumer Protection and the Nevada Coalition of Commercial Energy Consumers, filed motions of reconsideration with the PUC. The consumer protection bureau wants the entire $922 million request dismissed, blaming the utility for poor business decisions. The coalition is seeking an additional $12.7 million reduction from the $485 million that was approved.

PUC spokeswoman Cynthia Messina said the utility "may have jumped the gun" by filing the lawsuit without having pursued a motion for reconsideration.