NV Energy customers set to see October bill credit
Nevada’s power company is set to pay you back.
Come October, NV Energy is expected to dole out one-time bill credits to customers.
The Public Utilities Commission said the payments would be about $53 for single-family homes, about $29 for multiple-family homes, $27 for general commercial customers and $285 for its largest commercial customers.
NV Energy, which owns Southern Nevada’s Nevada Power Company and Northern Nevada’s Sierra Pacific Power Company, must ask the Public Utilities Commission every three years to approve the rates it can charge Nevadans for power, and the company can earn only so much money based on the three-year plan. Earnings beyond that agreed-upon total are collected and eventually returned to Nevada customers.
The power company said it over-earned $43.3 million in 2018 and $16.4 million in 2019, filings with the commission show.
Last week, the commission ordered NV Energy to pay the credit to active customers on Oct. 1. The company has a week to submit its plan for following through with the order.
NV Energy spokeswoman Jennifer Schuricht said the company supports the decision to pay out customers with the one-time credit.
The jolt to families comes at a time when Nevada customers are struggling to pay their bills as a result of the pandemic’s economic toll. Nevadans have accumulated nearly $29.5 million in missed payments to the power company — the total this time last year was $6.8 million, the commission said.
The nearly $60 million payment would represent the largest single payout to Nevada homes in the power company’s history, the company noted in the draft order.
“NV Energy filed a historic $120 million revenue reduction in June of 2020 in order to lower costs for our southern Nevada customers and to help drive Nevada’s long-term economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19,” Schuricht wrote in a Wednesday email. “We were able to achieve this reduction by refinancing debt and achieving operational efficiencies. Today’s decision addresses just part of the benefit of our original filing. We are reviewing the order and focused on the 7-day compliance schedule.”
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.