NV Energy’s electric rates likely to stay put for a while

By Mick Akers

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 | 2 a.m.

With the onset of triple-digit heat, Las Vegas residents will undoubtedly be thinking about their energy bills.

Although it won’t cool down the high temps, NV Energy announced Monday that residential rates will not rise for the next three years, if approved.

As legally required, NV Energy filed its triennial general rate review application to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on Monday. In it, the utility company stated it did not require any new revenue tied to managing business operations.

“We are legally required to make a filing every three years, which reviews costs associated with management of the utility and delivering electricity to customers, including investments in distribution, transmission and generation facilities, including a return on those investments, and associated operating and maintenance expenses and taxes,” said Jennifer Schuricht, NV Energy spokeswoman.

If the commission accepts the application as filed, an average residential bill in Southern Nevada will be about the same is it was in 2008. The average single-family residential customer using 1,110 kilowatts a month pays $136.37, according to NV Energy.

“We would not have made this filing if we weren’t legally required to do so, because we are not asking for any more money to run our core operations,” said Paul Caudill, president and CEO of NV Energy. “We understand that our customers run their homes and businesses on a budget and my NV Energy colleagues and I are committed to doing the same. Our filing proposes no rate changes for the single-family residential customer and reductions for some customer classes.”

With approval, rates will be relatively unchanged for a nine-year period, as the last rate case that went into effect was January 2012, when NV Energy increased rates by 2.7 percent, and the next triennial rate will be filed in June 2020 and begin in January 2021.