LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A nationwide report that particulars makes an attempt to inflate power payments by utility firms working as monopolies takes pictures at NV Vitality and Southwest Gasoline, however state regulators say they’ve shoppers’ backs.
The report from the Vitality and Coverage Institute (EPI) cites cases when Southern Nevada utilities have tried to move off prices to ratepayers for spa providers, journey bills of a partner, company-branded presents, and even a golf course membership.
Peter Kostes, communications director for the Public Utilities Fee of Nevada (PUCN), mentioned these makes an attempt and others failed.
“The Nevada examples cited in the report were addressed in prior rate cases, and the Commission ultimately did not allow the costs of any inappropriate expenditures to be recovered through customer rates,” Kostes mentioned.
Customers have little endurance for monopolies that consistently spar with regulators to extend earnings for stockholders. Simply this week, group advocates mentioned low revenue households had reached a “crisis point” with utility payments.
EPI is not solely keen on defending ratepayers. The group additionally seeks to show assaults and deception by fossil gas firms, utilities and related teams that attempt to sluggish the conversion to renewable power.
Southwest Gasoline — focused within the report for the majority of inappropriate fees associated to Nevada ratepayers — provided a brief assertion: “The rates Southwest Gas charges its customers include only those costs approved by its regulators, and do not include expenses such as community giving and volunteer programs, political contributions, lobbying, sports sponsorships, and corporate events.”
However the report describes a cat-and-mouse recreation that places the burden on shopper advocates to catch them if they will. It may be a frightening activity within the blizzard of paperwork that inundates PUCN and state regulators. It is a system that is less-than-friendly for shoppers — and shopper advocates — on the lookout for solutions about what utilities are as much as.
“As Nevada regulatory staff noted, utilities routinely and repeatedly attempt to seek cost recovery for expenses previously disallowed or flagged as concerns,” the EPI report mentioned.
“Southwest Gas sought to bill Nevada customers for board members’ spa services including a manicure and pedicure, for food and beverages purchased during a Las Vegas Golden Knights professional hockey game, and for in-room hotel movies and mini-bar expenses,” EPI’s report mentioned. “A senior executive at the utility added a charge for their spouse to travel to meetings of the utility’s board of directors. The utility has a history of shifting Wall Street costs onto customers, including sticking its Arizona customers with $560,000 annually for ‘costs associated with maintaining investor relations’ in a 2019 rate case, and $217,870 in investor relations expenses including air travel, meals, and car rentals in a 2016 case.”
Southwest Gasoline operates in Arizona (1.15 million clients), Nevada (800,000 clients), and California (200,000 clients).
A Nevada regulatory staffer who ferreted out the abuses within the Southwest Gasoline 2020 charge case famous that overlooking small fees can have important ramifications. “The issue with ignoring these costs is that the costs are inappropriate, and if later brought to light would lessen the public’s confidence in the regulatory process,” the staffer wrote.
The report appears to be like again over eight years of data.
NV Vitality did not command as a lot consideration as Southwest Gasoline, however the report did criticize spending on mobile phone charging banks emblazoned with the corporate emblem — a part of a swag bag given to folks attending a lithium convention. The report highlighted public relations messages stuffed into ratepayers’ payments, questioning NV Vitality’s behavior of passing alongside prices of their efforts to look good of their clients’ eyes for “investments in the community.”
NV Vitality typically tries to get well the prices of those invoice inserts as a part of its Demand Facet Administration plan bills, the report mentioned. In a latest charge case, Nevada’s Bureau of Client Safety really helpful that the PUCN require NV Vitality to make sure that its schooling supplies are “designed to convey specific messages about the benefits and functionalities” of this system and “not merely corporate image building or goodwill advertising.”
And though the criticism appeared mild, NV Vitality teed off on EPI. When 8 Information Now requested for the corporate to reply to the EPI report, NV Vitality questioned the group’s integrity, citing its personal watchdog group that criticizes EPI’s transparency and alleges that it is a “dark money group.”
The corporate’s assertion was extra formal: “NV Energy is committed to providing safe, reliable and affordable energy for customers. NV Energy seeks recovery of allowable costs, as regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Any cost that would be paid by customers through rates is carefully vetted and considered by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada before those costs appear in a bill.”
NV Vitality famous, “Certain expenses are paid for solely by the company – and are not paid for by customers. That includes NV Energy’s political and charitable donations and branding campaigns.”
Certainly, that is the legislation in a couple of states: Colorado, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire. And comparable legal guidelines are proposed in Arizona, California, Utah and 9 different states within the Midwest and Northeast.
Nevada depends on shopper advocates to police the utilities, with the PUCN on the heart of the struggle. The Nevada Legislature convenes in February 2025, presenting a possibility to contemplate new shopper safety legal guidelines.
