Utility rates going up in Nevada - again

CARSON CITY - Rate hikes approved this week by the state Public Utiities Commission have pushed the total of such increases since midsummer to nearly $121 million - and the amount could climb $100 million higher by year's end.

The latest increases, authorized Tuesday by the PUC, include one for $25.7 million for Reno-based Sierra Pacific Power Co. and one for $15.5 million for Las Vegas-based Nevada Power Co.

The Nevada Power boost, which will increase bills of typical residential power users by about $1 a month, is the latest of several for the utility since July.

Combined, the Nevada Power increases represent about $95 million in new annual revenues, and add more than $7 a month to residential bills under terms of an agreement approved in July.

Still pending is a Nevada Power increase for another $15.8 million.

For Sierra Pacific, its $25.7 million increase is the first for electrical power under terms of the July agreement, and will add about $2 a month to the average residential bill.

But the utility has another request in the works that would raise another $7.7 million yearly from electrical customers. And on Wednesday the utility filed for a $26.8 million yearly increase in revenues from its natural gas customers. That's a 35 percent increase in per-therm gas prices, and would increase the average gas customer's bill by more than $11.

There's more: Southwest Gas has just filed a request for a $63.7 million boost in its annual revenue collected from natural gas customers throughout Nevada. That would boost its bills in northern and southern Nevada by as much as 28 percent.

Southwest said the increase, including $16.6 million from northern Nevadans and $47.1 million from southern Nevadans, is needed due to an unprecedented run-up in natural gas prices.

For a typical residential user in southern Nevada, the Southwest increase would add just under $8 a month to a natural gas bill. In northern Nevada, the increase would be just over $13 a month.

It's difficult enough just sorting out all the rate hikes that have been approved or are pending. Complicating matters is the existence of a deregulation law passed in 1999 that included what many thought was an electric utility rate freeze.

But Gov. Kenny Guinn put deregulation on hold, saying he feared Nevadans would be hit with the same big increases in power bills that occurred in California and other states.

Democratic legislative leaders who have criticized the flurry of rate hikes since July agree Guinn was right to delay electric utility deregulation.

But the lawmakers also questioned the legality of the July agreement that permits a series of small rate hikes, saying they'll add up to huge increases over time.

The July agreement between utilities and major power users let Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power, both subsidiaries of Sierra Pacific Resources, seek the periodic rate hikes to cover the costs of fuel and purchased power in preparation for a deregulated market.