Electric rate dip foreseen by utility
Southern Nevada residential power customers can look forward to their average monthly bill dropping by $6.71 in October, if state regulators approve a rate adjustment case filed Friday.
Nevada Power Co. asked the Public Utilities Commission to lower rates by 5 percent overall on Oct. 1, reflecting lower prices for wholesale power purchased by the utility for resale, said Tony Sanchez, senior vice president of Sierra Pacific Resources, the utility's parent company.
The typical residential customer using an average of 1,250 kilowatt hours will pay $144.95, down from $151.66 under existing rates. That represents a 4.4 per cent reduction for residential customers using that quantity of power.
Since August, Nevada Power has been adjusting rates every three months to compensate for changes in costs of fuel used for generating electricity and changes in the costs of purchased power. Since then, the company has lowered rates by $35.5 million or 1.4 percent to reflect lower costs for fuel and purchased power.
The quarterly changes avoid big swings in electric rates, which resulted from allowing past costs to pile up and accrue interest before yearly adjustments.
Nevada Power still makes annual adjustments, like this one, but the percentage of increases and decreases are lower.
Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0420.
