Nevada Power plan advances

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

Don Soderberg, chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission, on Monday recommended the approval of a resource plan submitted last summer by Nevada Power Co., including the construction of two new power plants.

The draft order, authored by Soderberg, must be approved by the full commission on Wednesday.

If approved, Nevada Power would be authorized to pursue the construction of a $44 million, 80-megawatt power plant and a $414 million, 520-megawatt power plant. Both natural-gas fired plants would be built on the site of the Harry Allen Generation Station about 15 miles north of Las Vegas.

The utility had argued that the plants will be needed to meet the rapid growth in the Las Vegas Valley, which is expected to create a 3,000 megawatt power supply shortfall by 2006.

Soderberg's draft order also recommends approval of the pursuit of additional long-term power contracts to meet demand as well as a $500,000 study to determine the feasibility of building new coal-fired plants.

Nevada Power currently generates just 40 percent of the power it supplies to its customers. The balance is purchased on the open market, which has been subject to increasingly volatile price fluctuations, the utility has argued.

"The record evidence shows the benefits under (Nevada Power's) current circumstances of constructing additional generation," the draft order said.

In other PUC moves, Commissioner Adriana Escobar Chanos on Monday released a draft order recommending the approval of Southwest Gas Corp.'s 11 percent rate increase.

The so-called "purchased gas adjustment" would allow the company to recover $25.5 million it spent buying gas between November 2002 and October 2003.

That draft order also must be approved by the commission at a Wednesday meeting.

Escobar Chanos also recommended denial of the company's request to make monthly rate adjustments. The utility had argued that while customers would experience more rate changes they would be smaller than the current annual adjustments.

The commissioner said Southwest Gas had not done enough to notify customers that their rates could change monthly. She added that amid significant increases in electric and water rates over the past year that the timing would be inappropriate for a shift to monthly adjustments.