Plan fails to ignite residents

What, you guys don't care about your heating bills in the middle of the summer?

That's the message Las Vegans sent Thursday night, when just two locals signed up to speak at a consumer-comment session related to a potential $5.53-a-month wintertime rate increase natural-gas utility Southwest Gas has proposed.

Inside the auditorium of the Sunrise Library on Harris Avenue, it seemed corporate suits outnumbered consumers. Perhaps five or 10 ratepayers were on hand; representatives of Southwest Gas, the media and the state Public Utilities Commission, which held the hearing, made up the rest of the crowd of about 30.

What consumer response there might have been seemed to be muted after Ed Gieseking, director of pricing and tariffs for Southwest Gas, told the group in his introductory remarks that additional rate cases could actually result in lower gas bills after Nov. 1.

The light audience didn't seem to surprise Eric Witkoski, the Nevada consumer advocate who represents ratepayers in utility cases.

"Most people use gas for heating, and it's 110 out," Witkoski said. "Gas bills aren't top of mind. Even though it's always a concern, it's not the biggest concern" in Southern Nevada.

Only one of the two consumers who asked to address the commission beseeched the agency for lower rates.

"Any increase would not be good at this time," said Stephanie Christian, a 22-year-old cosmetology student who lives with her husband, Daniel, and their two small children. "We are all in financial difficulty, and we are not ready for you to make us pay more."

But Christian told the Review-Journal after she spoke that she would support the higher rates if they went to support conservation efforts and replacement of outmoded equipment.

The other ratepayer didn't testify for or against higher bills, and instead asked about conservation measures.

The public-comment session involved two rate applications from Southwest Gas. The first filing is a general rate case that would boost monthly residential rates by 6.9 percent, or $5.53, in winter, and 6.7 percent, or $2, in summer.

The second is a deferred-energy rate case that would cut the average monthly household bill by 1.3 percent a month, or 89 cents, in winter, and 1 percent, or 31 cents, in summer.

Rates stemming from both cases would begin Nov. 1.

But Gieseking said the utility plans to file two additional rate cases to take effect Nov. 1, one involving energy costs and one related to interest-rate expenses. If the Public Utilities Commission gives the nod to all four filings, the typical bill would actually drop $1.95 a month averaged over a year, or $3.20 a month in winter, Gieseking said.

The rate changes would follow a 6.9 percent jump in power rates that the Public Utilities Commission granted NV Energy on June 24. Three percent of that rate boost took effect July 1, with the rest scheduled to start Jan. 1. The increases will add $10.29 a month to the typical household's power costs.

NV Energy has requested an additional 3.2 percent rate spike that would send up power bills by about $6 a month. The commission heard public comment in that case on Wednesday and will decide on it in September. Any new rates would take effect Oct. 1.

Through its general rate case, Southwest Gas aims to recover business costs, including interest, taxes, inflation, returns for investors, capital investments and rising salaries. The utility also wants the commission to consider changes in customer counts and natural-gas use. The utility says customer numbers have grown, even as the average amount of natural gas used per household has dropped.

To account for all those factors, Southwest Gas says it needs an additional $28.8 million annually in revenue from rates. Its overall revenue in 2008 was $2.14 billion.

Unlike with NV Energy, state law doesn't require Southwest Gas to file general rate cases on a set timetable. Southwest Gas last filed a generate rate case in 2004.

The utility's deferred-energy case seeks a drop of $5.6 million in revenue from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1 to account for a drop in the cost of purchasing fuel. Law prohibits utilities from profiting on fuel costs, which they must pass directly to consumers. When fuel expenses fall, customers get a rate break.

Southwest Gas rates declined by 2.8 percent on May 1 after the utility's last deferred-energy filing.

The commission has scheduled formal hearings in the Southwest Gas cases for Sept. 8 and Sept. 17 inside its offices at 101 Convention Center Drive, Suite 250. It should have a decision in October. For more information on the cases, visit http://pucweb1.state.nv.us/PUCN and search dockets 09-04003 and 09-05001.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.