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Published Friday, May 6, 2011 | 12:52 p.m.
Updated Friday, May 6, 2011 | 3:13 p.m.
Sun archives
- NV Energy customers may get zapped for conserving (5-4-2011)
- NV Energy reports $2.3 million in 1Q net profits (4-29-2011)
- NV Energy to begin installing electronic meters (9-1-2010)
- NV Energy rate increase gets commission’s OK (6-24-09)
- Draft plan would hike NV Energy rates (6-18-2009)
- Commission urged to reject proposed NV Energy rate hike (4-6-2009)
- Hearing scheduled on proposed NV Energy rate hike (2-26-2009)
- NV Energy slips to a fourth quarter loss (2-11-2009)
CARSON CITY — The state Consumer Protection Bureau is warning that NV Energy would be able to ask for yet another rate increase for customers’ energy efficiency under a bill being considered by the Nevada Legislature.
Assembly Bill 150 would allow the utility to recover revenue it lost because of energy efficiency programs that are not tangible, or installed, such as sending customers comparisons of their energy use and their neighbors’.
Empowered by 2009 legislation, NV Energy is seeking a rate increase for the loss of sales because customers are conserving electricity by replacing old appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators with new ones, and with the use of devices such as energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. The company wants the Nevada Public Utilities Commission’s approval for a 5 percent rate increase for Southern Nevada customers, and 3 percent rate increase for Northern Nevada customers, to recover revenue it would have received without those conservation incentives.
The bill being considered this session has broad support from the environmental community, NV Energy and Jon Wellinghoff, former consumer advocate in Nevada and chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Wellinghoff wrote in a letter to lawmakers that new studies prove people can save energy with more information.
“These types of programs directly engage ratepayers on their energy usage by giving them better information, and thereby motivating them to use less energy and save money,” he wrote.
The state’s Consumer Protection Bureau warned the legislation would lead to a power rate increase, similar to the case residents are facing.
“It’s hard enough to explain that if you install a new light bulb, you’re still going to have a rate increase,” said Dan Jacobsen of the bureau. “It’s going to be harder to explain to people that if you decide to keep your home hotter (in the summer), because you want to conserve energy, your rate is going to increase.”
The example used in a hearing on Wednesday is Opower, a Virginia company, would contract with NV Energy to send customers an analysis of their energy use compared with their neighbors. The analysis would suggest ways each resident could improve efficiencies at their home. There would also be a test group and sampling, to provide proof about how much savings could be attributed to the program.
The average savings of the program would be $20 per house per year, and residents would save an estimated $15 million, according to Jeff Lyng, Opower director of market development.
Jacobsen on Wednesday offered an amendment to allow NV Energy to recover the hard costs of the programs, but not recoup the energy savings from it.
Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, who is a sponsor of the bill, said he believes from a policy perspective that programs such as comparisons for customers should be treated the same as programs such as replacing air conditioners and refrigerators.
“If the company is going to get money to promote conservation, and prevent the need for coal-fired plants, then we should at least use the most effective strategies to promote conservation,” he said.
Ultimately it’s up to the three-member PUC, which is appointed by the governor, to decide what rate increases are allowed, he said.
Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, who sponsored Senate Bill 358, the bill that passed in 2009 that allowed the company to seek its current rate increase, said this week he has yet to study the provision of the latest proposed legislation that would allow for another rate increase.
He said there are long-term costs and benefits associated with preventing or delaying new power plants.
A Nevada Senate Committee unanimously passed AB150 out of committee on Friday afternoon. Sen. James Settlemeyer, R-Minden, said he had considered an amendment by the Bureau of Consumer Protection to limit the impact on rates, but didn't want to add it out of respect for the sponsor of the bill, Bobzien, he said. There was no other discussion.
The bill now goes to the Senate floor.
Horsford is getting paid by Nevada Power. Crook
NV Energy wants to increase rates to compensate them for the energy that they are NOT selling?
Will the banks want a rate increase to compensate them for the mortgages they are not writing?
Will the oil companies want to further increase the price of the gasoline becasue they are selling less?
Where is it going to stop?
So..they are going to charge me more for using less energy and for sending me additional information that I never asked for...
What a rip-off!
According to SW Energy 2007 report, there were roughly 932,000 households in NV. Presumably that number has gone up since 2007. So at $20 per household they want to spend at least 18M to save 15M? They are going to spend $20 per household to send a report that tells me my average compared to my neighbors (lets say $2 printing and mailing and a one time cost to write a computer program to generate the data) along with stock materials that provide the same information anyone who is interested in conserving power could easily obtain off the internet. Where's the rest of that money going? Oh, and no one saves anything unless on top of the cost for this program the customer actually buys a new efficient AC system etc. And then you are going to charge me 5% (roughly $50 per year) more for energy to recoup the loss of income from people being more efficient. Doesn't NV engergy get to turn off their most expensive production facilities and operate their more fuel efficient systems as demand drops? This plan doesn't make much sense. Did you notice on the side links to this page a link to the sun article that NV energy actually had a 2.3 million profit for Q1 2011? How can they claim they are losing money because people are bing more effient?
Nevada Power in a legalized monopoly and for many years has generally got its way. Nice they recommend ways to save power and then create a need to raise rates because they have lost money from suggesting ways to save money and have you buy products to further reduce power usage (kind of makes you wonder if they are investing in these same power saving technologies) and later ask for higher rates"""""".on and on, we will get the bill they want to give us. Come-on cheap solar units, get a move-on!
What is the point of conserving anything when these money hungry people just raise your rates to line their pockets after you conserve. It makes no sense whatsoever. Its high time we end the MONOPOLY on power.
If the square footage or the residence, number of people in the household, and work schedule of household members are not taken in consideration, these reports will be comparing apples to orange and therefore worthless.
NV Energy is a for-profit business. Their mission very reasonably includes making a return on investment for their share holders. Businesses establish operational baseline expenses and virtually never downsize voluntarily.
A 5% reduction in revenue stream cannot immediately result in a 5% downsizing. Financing periods for power plants, substations, powerlines, etc., are typically over decades. It is probable that NV Energy is still making payments on their percentage ownership of the Mohave Power Plant that was shutdown in 2005.
Southern Nevada has amazing solar resources and NV Energy can off-set a growing percentage of their operations by taking advantage of this opportunity. We are watching to see if they take the initiative to do so.
In the mean time, they are going after low hanging fruit. We have directly met with the PUC and State of Nevada legislators to encourage them to make it easier for NV Energy to generate and bring home new revenues from outside Nevada to help boost our local economies.
We have to work together - contrary to the common media and political message of "Economic Recovery", we have more and new challenges ahead.
etcgreen.com
>>NV Energy is a for-profit business. Their mission very reasonably includes making a return on investment for their share holders.<<
All the more reason for the legislature to reject this proposal or at least look closely at it to see if it is justified. One shouldn't assume they are putting forth a reasonable request as a non-profit public servant. They should try to make whatever they can for their shareholders and the government should hold their feet to the fire, make them justify their request, and say no in the best interests of the consumers who have no choice but to buy power from a company that by their own admission is making higher not lower profits.
This is ridiculous! I conserve energy, and then the utility company says that they are losing money because consumers are conserving, and so therefore must raise their rates. Something is very wrong with this picture.
Why is a company that is considered a "public utility" concerned about their profit??? (I'm referring to NV Energy)
'NV Energy is a for-profit business' - bingo. Remember when SNWA wanted to buy the power company and make it a public utility? Now we have to give up savings on power conservation to support NV Energy's profits.
Remember the Enron-created power crisis? Public utility L.A. Water and Power kept the lights on and did not rip off their customers for it. It is indeed definite that NV Energy is still making payments on the fraudulent contracts created during that crisis.
We have to work together to help wealthy investors get wealthier.
Rate increases? To punish consumers for efficiency? Does this make sense? Or is this another example of limitless greed from the corporate elite?
Here we live in a state that may very well cut education to Third World levels while it may allow a rate hike to punish consumers for learning how to conserve energy. Stupid!
What a sad state of affairs, in an even sadder state. My view: let NV Energy live within its means! And if the state budget is going to be cut so drastically that working Nevadans are deprived of vital public services, then don't make their lives even harder by allowing this senseless rate hike. Nix it!
"Sen. James Settlemeyer, R-Minden, said he had considered an amendment by the Bureau of Consumer Protection to limit the impact on rates, but didn't want to add it out of respect for the sponsor of the bill, Bobzien, he said."
Isn't that nice, Settlemeyer respects Bobzien, but the citizens get the shaft. Yep, we understand completely. No respect for the citizens that put you there.
Why would NV Energy pay for Home Energy Reports? There is a site that does it for free"SAGESTEPS.COM and available to all customers of NV Energy, Southwest Gas and Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Yakira is a terrorist of the decent people of Clark County. Send in the strike force for this sissy,
What can we do about this? It seems underhanded to provide services in the form of a report that consumers did not request nor will benefit from. It seems underhanded to use the decrease in energy use - which is the goal not only of NV but of the country - as a reason to raise rates. Couldn't energy companies foresee that their revenues would drop as consumers try to conserve. This really seems like extortion.
How can they even plan to do a neighbor to neighbor comparison when we have foreclosed homes on every block. The entire idea seems engineered to pave the way for the rate hike. Disgusting.