You have to admire the sheer audacity. Honestly. NV Energy, the utility monopoly that holds Southern Nevada's power grid in a chokehold, just got approval from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to roll out a new billing scheme so brazenly anti-consumer that the state's own Attorney General is calling foul.
They’re calling it a “peak demand charge.” It’s a fancy way of saying they’re going to find the 15-minute window each day where you used the most electricity—say, when you got home from work and turned on the A/C, the TV, and the oven—and slap you with a special, higher rate for it.
This is a bad idea. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm dumpster fire of a policy designed to punish you for the crime of living in your own home. And the best part? The state’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) says it’s almost certainly illegal.
They Must Think We're Idiots
Let’s be real. The BCP is pointing to a state law that explicitly prohibits utilities from forcing residential customers onto time-of-day rates unless they choose to be. The PUC’s own order approving this mess admits the demand charge “‘varies based on the time during which the electricity is used.’” It’s an open-and-shut case. So how did it get approved?
NV Energy’s justification is a masterclass in corporate doublespeak. The PUC, in its infinite wisdom, bought the argument that the “uniqueness of the circumstances in Nevada” justifies this. The uniqueness? What, the fact that it gets hot here? That people use air conditioning? What unique legal framework are they talking about that allows them to be the only investor-owned utility in the entire country to mandate a charge like this? It’s a joke.
The public, unsurprisingly, isn’t laughing. The BCP says the response has been “vehemently negative, confounding and filled with fear of rate-shock.” You think? People are already getting hammered by inflation, and now their power bill is about to turn into a lottery where the house always wins. I get my own power bill and I swear it's written in hieroglyphics. This new charge is just another line of nonsense designed to extract more cash.
The whole thing feels like a magic trick where the magician tells you exactly how he’s going to screw you, does it, and then expects you to applaud.
The Solar Shell Game
And if you thought this was just about squeezing the average customer, wait until you see what they’re doing to people with rooftop solar. You know, the people who actually invested their own money to help the grid and, god forbid, lower their own bills.
Under this new plan, solar customers are getting hit twice. First, they’re subject to the same predatory demand charge. As one solar user, Michael Cook, pointed out, this completely “ignores total generation and exports,” punishing people who might be sending a ton of clean energy back to the grid.
Second, for new solar customers in Northern Nevada, NV Energy is changing how they calculate credits for that excess energy. Instead of a monthly calculation, they’re moving to a 15-minute interval. This is a subtle but vicious change designed to do one thing: make going solar less attractive. It chips away at the return on investment until you start to wonder if it's even worth it. And when that happens, who benefits? The monopoly, offcourse.
NV Energy’s excuse is that solar users are being “subsidized” by everyone else to the tune of $50 million a year. Where does that number come from? Did an intern pull it out of a hat? They throw out these massive figures to scare people, but they never show the math. Are we just supposed to take their word for it?
Then you get the PR spin. Meghin Delaney, the utility’s media manager, says, “I totally understand the folks who feel like they can’t trust NV Energy right now.” Translation: “We know you know we’re screwing you, but we’ve been coached to use empathetic language while we do it.” This is coming from the same company that just got caught overcharging 60,000 customers. They say they’re trying to “do the right thing,” but their actions…
So, Place Your Bets
So here we are. A hearing is set for November 18 for the PUC to "reconsider" its decision. Don’t hold your breath. A retired BCP manager with 28 years of experience said he can’t recall the Commission ever substantially changing an order like this. He thinks they might just “harden it for judicial review”—lawyer-speak for "double down."
Jon Wellinghoff, the state’s first-ever consumer advocate, says the BCP is “dead right legally” and will win on appeal (NV Energy peak demand charge, tweak to net metering, violate state law, say experts • Nevada Current). That’s great, but an appeal takes time and money. In the meantime, NV Energy gets to move forward with a rate structure that feels less like a utility service and more like a shakedown. The fix feels like it’s already in, and now it’s just a question of how long and ugly the court battle will be.
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