Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010 | 9:14 a.m.
NV Energy and a vendor will soon be squaring off in court over allegations of unpaid bills and the alleged disclosure of confidential information.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday says the legal dispute pits NV Energy against Comverge Inc. of Norcross, Ga., which has provided technical services to NV Energy for a program called Cool Share in which NV Energy manages customers’ air conditioning use during peak demand conditions.
The suit says Comverge last year also participated in presentations and provided information to NV Energy — on its own and as a potential subcontractor to a company called Sensus — in bidding for work involving “Advanced Service Delivery (ASD),” NV Energy’s next-generation Smart Grid project.
ASD is a project to enable customers to directly manage their energy use and provide for better management of energy resources statewide. Part of the project involves installation of smart meters enabling two-way communication between consumers and NV Energy.
The $298 million ASD aims to replace every electric meter in Nevada with a smart meter that will let customers monitor energy use in real time and potentially adjust usage patterns based on pricing that would change between peak and non-peak demand periods.
Comverge is asserting it provided information subject to nondisclosure about its “demand response management system” for NV Energy’s ASD that NV Energy later improperly disclosed.
Comverge also asserts it provided $1.2 million in services involving its demand response management system that it now wants to be paid for.
NV Energy denies it agreed to pay Comverge for the alleged $1.2 million in services, denies it disclosed confidential information and says Comverge was not selected as a demand response management system provider.
As part of the dispute, an attorney for Comverge on Nov. 18 sent a cease and desist letter to NV Energy and certain contractors demanding NV Energy and its contractors not use or disclose information and products related to Comverge’s demand response management system.
NV Energy responded Wednesday with a lawsuit against Comverge, charging its threats and demands against NV Energy and NV Energy vendors are improper.
The suit, filed by Las Vegas attorneys Steve Morris and Akke Levin of the firm Morris Peterson, seeks a court declaration that NV Energy has a continued right to use the information at issue “without interference or harassment by Comverge.”
NV Energy also seeks an injunction barring Comverge from sending false and misleading information to NV Energy vendors and “prohibiting further damage to NV Energy and its business relationships by requiring that Comverge retract all such false and/or misleading statements and correspondence that it has previously issued.”
Comverge’s attorney in Atlanta couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The attorneys for NV Energy said in their lawsuit that resolution of the dispute is important since Comverge has threatened litigation against NV Energy and “such litigation will adversely affect NV Energy and its programs.”
“Comverge’s cease and desist letters were plainly intended to interfere with NV Energy’s valuable business relationships with its vendors through delaying or altogether precluding NV Energy from partnering with those vendors to further develop energy programs,” the lawsuit charged.
Comverge, which has a Las Vegas office, says on its website it’s a “leading provider of intelligent energy management solutions that empower utilities, commercial and industrial customers and residential consumers to use energy in a more effective and efficient manner.”
Comverge says it has more than 500 utility and 2,100 commercial customers and 5 million deployed residential devices.
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