LETTER: NV Energy’s attack on solar power

Why would the Public Utilities Commission approve NV Energy’s request to place demand charges on residential customers? It will kill the rooftop solar industry in Nevada.

I have rooftop solar. I sell my excess power back to NV Energy for 8 cents per kilowatt hour and they then sell it for 14 cents per kilowatt hour to their other customers. Good deal for them.

Now, with the new demand charge, they will calculate my peak demand at night, which is the only time I am not producing my own energy. This is the time when the overall demand on the grid is the least. How can that be justified?

According to the email I got recently from NV Energy, I can expect my bill to go up by about $12 a month, an increase of 62 percent. This means that instead of an eight- or nine-year period to pay for my solar installation from the savings on my electric bill, it will take 15 years.

NV Energy must hate solar because they do everything they can to penalize it and now disincentivize it. With the end of the tax benefits for solar installation and the extended payoff period, who would want to invest in rooftop solar?

The PUC should put a stop to these shenanigans instead of approving them.