Bills going down for most NV Energy customers

By Daniel Rothberg

Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016 | 9:52 a.m.

NV Energy dropped its overall power rate about 5 percent for customers in Southern Nevada, effective at the beginning of the year, the utility announced Monday.

A typical residential customer using a monthly average of 1,141 kilowatt hours of electricity and paying $148.35 will see a decrease of $6.80 a month, or about 4.6 percent.

The rate reduction for residential, commercial and industrial customers stems primarily from savings in fuel and purchased-power costs, according to the utility.

Savings in those areas are passed directly to ratepayers, NV Energy said. The utility plans to submit a formal review of its fuel and purchased-power spending with the Public Utilities Commission in the spring.

“We are in a competitive market for power and energy services, and NV Energy has again responded by managing costs in a manner that benefits our customers directly,” Paul Caudill, NV Energy’s president and CEO, said in the news release.

The most recent reduction is the third since July, NV Energy said. Since then, a typical family’s bill has decreased $12.90 a month, or about 8.4 percent.

While NV Energy customers overall are getting a rate decrease, solar customers who draw energy from the grid will see their bills rise.

After the PUC approved a new rate structure for solar customers in December, the utility began implementing the revised rates — an increase in a fixed service charge and a reduction in the value of incentive credits — at the start of the year.