Gas prices skyrocket1/28/2024 ![]() Those new rates are not included in the consumer advocate’s projections for July power bills. The costs of that January spike, as well as the utility’s gas purchases in February and March will be part of a quarterly adjustment to be filed next month, with new rates going into effect July 1. The price of natural gas sold to Nevada ratepayers saw another unusually high spike in January 2023, hitting $36.81 per thousand cubic feet, up from $3.74 in January of 2021 and $7.45 in January 2022. Energy Information Administration reports. spiked to more than $48 per thousand cubic feet, the U.S. In December 2022, “due to colder-than-normal temperatures and regional pipeline constraints,” natural gas prices at several hubs in the western U.S. The average annual price of wholesale natural gas for Nevada’s electricity customers has remained in the single digits since 1997, topping out at $8.26 per thousand cubic feet in 2008. Natural gas made up just 21% of Pacificorp’s energy portfolio in 2022. The utility generates 60% of its energy for Southern Nevada and 41% of its energy for Northern Nevada from natural gas, a greater share than any other state served by parent company Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which provides electricity via PacifiCorp to 2 million customers in California, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. NV Energy has the highest electricity rate of the Mountain and Pacific states (about 15¢ per kilowatt hour in December 2022), with the exception of California (about 26¢ per kWh). Northern Nevada customers are paying $561 more, an increase of 50.2%. “That represents a 54.2% increase to ratepayers, many of whom are on fixed incomes.” NV Energy residential customers in Southern Nevada are paying $844 more a year for electricity than in 2021 when the Legislature last met, according to an exhibit submitted to the Legislature by Figueroa. ![]() Jeff Bohrman, NV Energy’s director of regulatory pricing and economic analysis, says he doesn’t know what that adjustment will entail. They do not include a quarterly adjustment in rates that will go into effect July 1. The consumer advocate’s projections for July power bills are based on current rates and average July 2021 usage for the north and south. NV Energy was unable to quantify that impact. Ratepayers also are shouldering a greater burden as more corporate and institutional customers opt out of NV Energy in favor of other energy suppliers, creating a shrinking pool of customers to share the utility’s burdens. “That still has to be put into rates at some point in time,” Figueroa said in an interview. Steve Sisolak in 2021 that paves the way for Greenlink, a utility transmission line network with a cost of $2.5 billion that can be passed on to customers. The public policy costs Figueroa referenced stem primarily from a bill passed by the Nevada Legislature and signed into law by Gov. “Ratepayers are angry and concerned about affordability.” “Due to public policy costs, past legislation and high natural gas prices, these rates will continue to go up for the foreseeable future,” Consumer Advocate Ernest Figueroa testified this month before lawmakers, the Nevada Current reported Monday. The average NV Energy bill for July is expected to reach $470 in Southern Nevada, up from $337 last year, and the average bill in Northern Nevada is projected at $212, up from $159 in 2022, says Nevada’s consumer advocate.
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