[0:00] All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.

[0:06] This meeting will consider agenda 3-24. President Carson City are myself, Haley Williamson Chair,

[0:12] and good morning, Commissioner Brown. Good morning, Chair. And in Las Vegas, good morning,

[0:15] Commissioner Cordova. Good morning. Agenda item 1A is the time allotted for comments

[0:21] from the general public. Pursuant to the Nevada Revised Statutes, a period of public

[0:25] comment is allowed at the beginning of the meeting and again before adjournment

[0:28] public comment will be limited to three minutes per speaker.

[0:31] Are there members of the public wishing to make comment in Carson City?

[0:34] No one is coming forward.

[0:36] Commissioner Cordova, are there members of the public in Las Vegas wishing to make comment?

[0:40] Hold on just a second.

[0:41] Is that for closing?

[0:46] Okay.

[0:47] It looks like we just have closing public comment.

[0:50] I'm kind of looking around to make sure I've got that right.

[0:52] Mr. Simmons, did you have no?

[0:54] Okay.

[0:55] Yep.

[0:55] We just have closing public comment.

[0:57] Thank you, Chair.

[0:57] Great.

[0:58] Thank you so much.

[0:58] Let's move on then to agenda item 2a which is brought to the commission by the assistant commission secretary regarding approval of the January 30th

[1:06] 2024 meeting minutes

[1:07] Commissioners Brown or Cordova. Would you like to pull the meeting minutes for further consideration? Thank you

[1:13] No, thank you. Thank you with that. I would move to approve the meeting minutes. Do I have a second second?

[1:18] Thank you all in favor. Please say aye

[1:21] Aye aye aye motion carries

[1:24] Agenda item 2E is brought to the commission by Commissioner Cordova.

[1:28] Commissioner Cordova, can you please present 2B?

[1:31] Yes, thank you, Chair.

[1:32] 2B is the application of Silver State South Storage LLC under the provisions of the Utility Environmental Protection Act

[1:40] for a permit to construct the Silver State South Solar Battery Energy Storage Project.

[1:45] It's a mouthful.

[1:46] consisting of the expansion of an existing 230 kilovolt substation and up to 250 megawatt battery energy storage system,

[1:55] a 230 kilovolt buswork tie, and associated facilities to be located on approximately 42.06 acres of federally managed land in Clark County, Nevada.

[2:06] The commission had previously approved this application, and since then the applicant had filed a motion requesting an opportunity to phase the construction of the project.

[2:15] project. The draft order before you would approve that request a phase and phase the project

[2:21] into two phases. I'm available for any questions.

[2:24] Thank you. Commissioner Brown, any questions?

[2:26] No, thank you.

[2:27] I don't either. Would you like to make a motion?

[2:29] Yes, I would. I move that we grant the motion to amend the compliance order of Silver State

[2:35] South Storage LLC as filed and issue the appropriate order.

[2:39] I will second. All in favor, please say aye.

[2:42] Aye.

[2:43] Aye.

[2:43] Hi.

[2:44] Hi.

[2:44] Motion carries.

[2:45] Agenda item 2C also brought to the commission by Commissioner Cordova.

[2:49] Commissioner Cordova, can you please present 2C?

[2:52] Yes.

[2:52] Thank you, Chair.

[2:53] 2C is the application of Nevada Power Company doing businesses and the energy for authority to adjust its annual revenue requirement for general rates charged to all classes of electric customers and for relief properly related there too.

[3:06] And it is a joint docket with the application of Nevada Power Company doing businesses and the energy for approval of new and revised appreciation.

[3:13] and amortization rates for its electric and common accounts.

[3:18] On January 10th, Nevada Power filed a petition for reconsideration and clarification.

[3:24] The regulatory operations staff filed a petition for reconsideration and clarification.

[3:29] And the Bureau of Consumer Protection filed a petition for reconsideration.

[3:33] There were three issues requested for clarification.

[3:36] The rate cap, the time of use rates, and the natural disaster protection plan costs.

[3:40] The draft order before you clarifies those issues as requested.

[3:44] There were two issues that were requested for reconsideration.

[3:47] The first issue was the NEM regulatory asset for which I recommend in the draft order that the commission reaffirm its previous order.

[3:55] To the extent that NV Energy has recorded additional costs that were beyond the test and certification period for this case,

[4:01] the draft order notes that they may be classified until the next Nevada Power Rate case.

[4:05] The second order that was requested for reconsideration is the short-term incentive plan.

[4:11] In the prior order, I accepted a suggestion proposed by Commissioner Brown

[4:15] because I share Commissioner Brown's concern that NV Energy has the tools it needs

[4:19] to attract and retain a competent workforce.

[4:22] However, upon reconsideration, I have proposed a change in this draft order.

[4:27] A large component of the cost of STIP is included in rates.

[4:31] But the component of STIP that was not earned should not be included in rates.

[4:35] and the energy designs the scorecard, determines the scoring, and issues the awards.

[4:41] Ratepayers should not be responsible for costs beyond those that the employees have earned.

[4:46] Further, I believe awarding employees differently than the program achievement levels

[4:51] is not necessarily a valuable tool for employee retention.

[4:56] I believe the cash performance awards are a more effective tool for this purpose.

[5:01] The commission's order included those costs into rates at paragraph 451 of the original order recognizing that the cash performance awards were designed specifically to recognize employee performance that far exceeds expectations.

[5:16] As such, my draft order reverts to language only including in rates the cost of STIP to the level they were earned.

[5:22] I'm available for any questions and I understand that Commissioner Brown has some proposed modifications.

[5:27] Thank you, Commissioner Cordova.

[5:29] Commissioner Brown, first, any questions?

[5:31] And second, would you like to present your proposed modifications?

[5:34] No questions.

[5:35] Thank you, Chair, and I'm happy to present my proposed modification.

[5:39] Thank you.

[5:40] I continue to have concerns with what I believe to be mixed messaging to the regulated utility

[5:45] by disallowing approximately 50% of the short-term incentive pay or STIP,

[5:50] while also criticizing the utility for providing poor customer service during a time

[5:55] time with an extremely difficult labor market.

[5:58] The effects of the proposed modifications before you today are essentially identical to the

[6:02] modification previously proposed and approved by this body during our original consideration

[6:07] of the matters before us today.

[6:10] The undisputed facts and the evident cherry record indicate employees of the regulated

[6:15] utility are undercompensated when compared to industry benchmarks, and that fact

[6:20] is under the existing compensation structure.

[6:23] Further reducing the compensation has the potential to exacerbate poor customer service results rather than enhancing them.

[6:30] I appreciate the opportunity to present these proposed modifications for consideration to my fellow commissioners.

[6:36] Thank you.

[6:37] Hi, Commissioner Cordova. Any questions to Commissioner Brown?

[6:40] I don't have any. Thank you.

[6:42] Thank you.

[6:43] I would like to start off by saying it is a privilege to work with two such professional employees and that reasonable minds can disagree.

[6:51] So thank you both for your respectful and thoughtful drafts.

[6:55] At this point, after having gone through them, I am prepared to support Commissioner Brown's

[7:01] proposed modifications.

[7:02] I'm persuaded that the evidence in the record shows that these payments are for individual

[7:07] performance for the managers and below levels.

[7:11] So these aren't directors or VPs or the CEO, this is managers and below, and their

[7:17] customer service is a benefit to rate payers and one that I think that we

[7:21] should acknowledge. I also think that the effect of this payment on rates is

[7:26] de minimis and so that that's another persuasive factor to me as well as some

[7:31] of the arguments that you lined out in your presentation Commissioner Brown. So

[7:35] thank you both again for bringing these forward. I think from motion

[7:41] And I'm wondering, Commissioner Cordova, if I might make the motion if you feel inclined

[7:49] to dissent from certain paragraphs, if that might make it easier for you, otherwise I

[7:55] don't – or you tell me, I guess.

[7:59] I think that makes sense unless General Counsel is glaring at you, that go ahead

[8:03] and make the motion and then I can, you know, agree and dissent where appropriate.

[8:08] Thank you.

[8:09] It's hard to tell if he's glaring at me.

[8:10] I don't think so.

[8:11] OK.

[8:13] At least not for this reason, I guess.

[8:18] OK, so I would move to grant the petitions

[8:24] for reconsideration and clarification.

[8:28] Grant or reaffirm the commission's order

[8:33] with the clarifications and considerations proposed

[8:36] by Commissioner Brown this morning.

[8:39] I think that works. Do I have a second?

[8:43] Second.

[8:45] Actually, before I – so I made other changes.

[8:53] I want to make sure that those are the ones that weren't related to STIB.

[8:57] Thank you. Sorry.

[8:58] I was trying to encompass that, so let me change it.

[9:01] Okay.

[9:01] So grant the petitions for reconsideration and clarification.

[9:04] affirm Commissioner Cordova's draft of those clarifications and modifications,

[9:13] and accept for the section on STIP in which we are going to affirm Commissioner

[9:19] Brown's modifications and affirmation of the original order. Do I have a second?

[9:24] second thank you all in favor please say aye aye and I will agree except I

[9:34] dissent to the section on step and that works thank you so much that motion

[9:41] carries our

[9:47] next agenda items are brought to us by the office of general

[9:51] counsel but I want to pause here I believe Commissioner Brown would like

[9:55] to abstain from one of these.

[9:57] Thank you, Chair Williamson.

[9:59] I'm abstaining from voting on item 3A due to a potential conflict between my previous

[10:04] roll with AT&T and the aforementioned item before the Commission today.

[10:11] Thank you.

[10:12] So let's take 3A first then.

[10:15] Agenda item 3A is brought to the Commission by the Office of General Counsel and to

[10:19] be voted upon without further discussion unless Commissioner Cordova, you'd like

[10:22] to pull 3A for further consideration.

[10:25] No, thank you.

[10:26] Thank you.

[10:27] With that I would move to accept general counsel's recommendations and issue the appropriate order for agenda item 3a. Do I have a second?

[10:34] Second. Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.

[10:37] Aye. Aye. Motion carries.

[10:40] Agenda items 3B and 3C are also brought to the Commission by the Office of General Counsel and can be voted upon unless any Commissioner would like to pull one for further consideration.

[10:48] Commissioner Cordova, would you like to pull 3B or 3C?

[10:51] No, thank you.

[10:52] Commissioner Brown?

[10:53] No, thank you.

[10:54] Thank you.

[10:55] With that, I would move to accept General Counsel's recommendations,

[10:57] and issue the appropriate orders for agenda items 3B and 3C.

[11:01] Do I have a second?

[11:03] Second.

[11:04] Thank you.

[11:04] All in favor, please say aye.

[11:06] Aye.

[11:07] Aye.

[11:08] Motion carries.

[11:11] Agenda items 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, and 6C are brought to the commission by the

[11:19] Regulatory operation staff and can be voted upon without further discussion unless any commissioner would like to pull one of these for further consideration

[11:26] Commissioner Cordova, would you like to pull any staff items?

[11:29] No, thank you. Commissioner Brown. No, thank you. Thank you with that

[11:33] I would move to accept staff's recommendations and issue the appropriate orders for agenda items 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b,

[11:40] 6a, 6b, and 6c. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor, please say aye.

[11:47] Hi. Hi. Hi. Motion carries. That brings us to agenda item 7A, which is the time for comments from the general public on any topic that is jurisdictional to the commission. Public comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker. Anyone in Carson City? No one is coming forward. I know we have one comment in Las Vegas at least, Commissioner Cordova.

[12:08] Yes, thank you. Lisa Olquin, if you want to come up up here where the microphone is.

[12:16] Yeah, there you go. That's good.

[12:21] Thank you, commissioners, for the opportunity to address you regarding this southwest.

[12:28] Can you pull the microphone a little bit closer?

[12:30] That way we make sure that people in Carson City can hear you.

[12:32] Can you hear me now?

[12:33] That's great.

[12:34] Thank you, commissioners, for this opportunity to address our concerns regarding the southwest gas increase,

[12:41] increase, the rate increase that they have proposed.

[12:44] I'm here trying to represent a lot of the members of the community who have come forward

[12:50] on several forums on Facebook and nextdoor.com.

[12:54] It's affecting the rate increases.

[12:56] Just this last couple of months is negatively affecting the quality of life to many residents.

[13:01] Me included, especially seniors who are on a limited income.

[13:06] Now I'm realizing that there's a lot of factors that I'm not aware of and we

[13:10] need to be educated on why or why not, we can get a vote through your commission to approach

[13:18] this subject and get it resolved.

[13:20] What I would like to know is what is necessary for us as citizens to do in order to stop

[13:27] this progression because people will have to move.

[13:30] It's just getting out a hand.

[13:32] So, like I said, it's impacting the community negatively and I would appreciate more communication

[13:41] with the people so that we understand what your role is and how you can rectify it and

[13:46] the laws or any clauses that need to be rectified and how this is going to take forward in the

[13:53] future so that we can make plans and appropriately preserve our quality of living in Las Vegas.

[13:59] Thank you.

[14:01] And I'm looking at Ann Marie Cuneo up north, and I know we have consumer reps down south.

[14:06] Can we make sure that someone can sit down and explain the rate case process, where it's

[14:10] at right now, and participation?

[14:13] Thank you.

[14:14] We can explain that and also explain the deferred energy process.

[14:19] Thank you very much.

[14:20] So everyone in Las Vegas, if staff in Las Vegas can hear me, that would be really

[14:26] appreciated.

[14:27] Thank you.

[14:28] Yes.

[14:28] And then we have one more commenter, Deborah Garding.

[14:36] Thank you.

[14:37] Yes.

[14:38] Please have a seat.

[14:39] Thank you for the opportunity to let me speak.

[14:42] And I'm going to continue where she left off.

[14:45] Okay, ma'am, can you make sure you pull the microphone in?

[14:48] There you go.

[14:49] Thank you.

[14:51] Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak up.

[14:54] I'm not only speaking for myself, I'm speaking for a number of home owners.

[14:57] Nevada is

[15:00] I'm publicly populated by most seniors who are in fixed incomes. And so I have basically

[15:06] two questions to ask you. Number one, is it true that there is a plan to schedule another

[15:13] April gas price for commercial use? Is that true?

[15:22] Ma'am, I can have staff talk to you after this right now. Is the time for any comments

[15:27] you want to make to the commission? And if you have questions, we're happy to try

[15:30] and answer them with our staff after this public comment period.

[15:33] We'd like the public to hear your answer.

[15:36] Is there a scheduled meeting for a possible April gas price

[15:42] increase?

[15:43] That's a fair question.

[15:44] Yes or no?

[15:47] Ma'am, I understand that that's your question.

[15:50] But there's, as you've posed your question,

[15:53] I don't actually have an answer for you

[15:54] because I don't know what you're referring to.

[15:56] So I think it would be good if we were

[15:57] able to have a conversation about this.

[16:00] We're referring to the gas prices, the gas bill prices.

[16:05] Is there a scheduled April increase consideration

[16:08] on your next meeting, February 26?

[16:12] Again, I don't know what you're referring to.

[16:15] How could you not?

[16:16] I'm spelling it out.

[16:17] Southwest gas bill.

[16:19] Yes, I have a Southwest gas bill.

[16:21] OK, next question.

[16:22] Two questions.

[16:23] I'm going to go ahead and inject here

[16:24] and I'll be the bad guy as the attorney.

[16:27] But ma'am, we appreciate your concerns, and there will be someone speaking with you after the meeting to address them and provide, you know, find out from you exactly what the issue is and to give a response that I'm sure will meet your expectations.

[16:44] Unfortunately, this is not a Q&A opportunity. This is an opportunity for public comment. And so I'm going to advise the commissioners to not respond to any questions at this time.

[16:56] Okay, well, the next question is, as a homeowner, personally experiencing what we're experiencing,

[17:03] because you, commissioners, take care of most of our utilities, gas, electric, and water, am I correct?

[17:10] Okay, so in my particular instance, as of November 2023, my equal payment plan was $60 on my gas bill.

[17:19] I've lived in my home for 25 years.

[17:22] I paid a pretty penny for pressurizing my home to add extra installation.

[17:28] I do all the things that you've indicated through the governor's office about being energy

[17:32] efficient, including the fact that you're offering supposedly financial assistance.

[17:37] So for my $60 Equal Payment Bill, in December it went to a $109 Equal Payment Bill with

[17:46] With credit due, and credit means that it should have been reduced, correct?

[17:52] So in January, I took advantage of my credit and lowered my 109 to $78.

[18:00] And February, my $60 bill went to $198.

[18:05] I decided to get off the equal payment because I was getting a credit two months in a row.

[18:12] Now I'm not alone.

[18:13] There are multiple examples by homeowners getting double and triple surprisingly in a given month now

[18:21] Here's what we know because we have a lot of smart homeowners are very educated and want their input

[18:26] We know that the cost of gas back in August of

[18:31] 2022 was three dollars and ninety cents and today it's only a dollar eighty five a big difference

[18:40] The natural gas prices went lower, and yet you cannot justify double and tripling debt

[18:46] prices along with electric.

[18:48] Are you trying to undiliberately force people out of their homes?

[18:54] Because what we want to know coming forward, what are you going to do to reasonably increase

[19:00] prices?

[19:00] Because we all expect increases.

[19:02] But what are you going to do reasonably to increase prices?

[19:06] If you would let me speak please. First of all, we have to be fair. We have to offer everyone in the public the same amount of time that we advertise.

[19:14] That's fair for everyone to participate. Secondly, we want to answer your questions.

[19:20] We have staff in Las Vegas who will sit down with you, with your bills, with the numbers, with all of your questions, and walk through as much time as you need so you get answers to some of these questions.

[19:29] We have two questions. Two questions. Two answers.

[19:33] Again, there are people there. This is a longer conversation, and we want to be able to help,

[19:38] and there are people there who want to help you.

[19:40] So, like, cool. I've already addressed this to the CEO of Southwest Gas, Karen Heller,

[19:46] the governor's office, your office. Who is going to help us?

[19:50] Ms. Gatti, we have a consumer complaint resolution division that exists for the primary purpose

[19:57] of providing the sorts of answers you're looking for.

[20:00] They can walk through the specifics of your bill.

[20:01] I've already addressed them.

[20:05] They will be speaking with you shortly, but I think you will ultimately, based on what

[20:10] I can tell from what you're asking about, you may be pleasantly surprised to know about

[20:15] how the deferred energy accounting process works, and those adjustments that you're

[20:19] talking about don't always result in increases.

[20:21] They can sometimes result in decreases, but those are things that we need to figure

[20:25] out what it is exactly you're asking about, and hopefully you'll get some resolution.

[20:31] And if not, we can hopefully, hopefully we're here to get answers.

[20:35] You cannot justify double and triple gas prices and expect people to be able to afford that.

[20:41] There's families here that are fixed income.

[20:44] There's family, single parents with children.

[20:47] Ma'am, I understand that you're angry.

[20:49] I live here too.

[20:50] My gas bill has gone up, but you have far exceeded the level of what is appropriate at this time.

[20:56] Okay.

[20:57] They're trying to help you.

[20:58] We're trying to help you.

[20:59] You're not giving me any answers.

[21:01] We're asking what is your plan coming forward for reasonable increases?

[21:05] We all expect increases.

[21:07] But how are you going to do it without surprises?

[21:11] Your time is up.

[21:12] Can you please excuse yourself?

[21:13] I think I've made my point.

[21:15] I can give you endless examples of people who have to make super adjustments,

[21:19] people who have to take their parents into their home

[21:22] because they cannot afford to keep their power on.

[21:24] Thank you.

[21:26] Anyone else wishing to make comment in Las Vegas?

[21:29] There's no one else in Las Vegas.

[21:30] Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.

Agenda 03-24

Agenda

Transcript