Nevadans have long been in the dark on just how prevalent electric and gas shutoffs are across the state.

But new federal data finally shines a light — and shows that Nevada electric customers have one of the highest shutoff rates in the nation.

A new data set compiled by the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighting state-by-state disconnections shows that Nevadans faced 185,000 electric disconnections in 2024 and 5,500 gas disconnections. 

At 1.18 percent, Nevada's average monthly disconnection rate was the eighth highest in the nation. The national average is less than 1 percent.

No other state west of the Rockies had a higher electric disconnection rate percentage, and only two other states west of the Mississippi River did, according to mapping from the watchdog Energy Policy Institute (EPI).  

The disconnection rate for Nevada's gas customers, however, was percentage wise substantially lower than the national average.

NV Energy and Southwest Gas serve as the monopoly utilities in Nevada, providing almost the entirety of the state's electric and gas services. NV Energy provides power to roughly 1.3 million Nevadans and gas services to about 185,000 customers in Northern Nevada, while Southwest Gas serves more than 840,000 Nevadans. The Nevada Rural Electric Association's member utilities serve another 125,000 customers. The association did not provide any numbers to The Indy. 

While the number of disconnections SW Gas shared with The Indy paralleled the federal numbers, NV Energy's reported disconnection rate is much lower. The utility publicly reported, and confirmed with The Indy, that it only had 32,000 disconnections in 2024. That number, however, only includes customers who participated in a specific payment program and does not reflect statewide disconnections. 

"The methodology used by the [EIA] differs from NV Energy's reporting, and therefore, figures are not directly comparable," the utility said in an email. 

The release of the federal data comes as Nevada regulators are implementing a new law requiring electric, gas or water utilities to release more information about disconnections — including the total number of disconnections and the ZIP codes where they occur.

"Just getting the disconnection data is kind of the bare minimum," said Keriann Conroy, research associate at EPI. "Without robust data, you can't make the policy decisions to truly start protecting people from disconnections."

The math doesn't add up

Utilities in 22 states are not required to report any information on household disconnections. Because of the lack of comprehensive national data, Congress in 2022 directed the U.S. Energy Information Administration to start collecting data on disconnections.

The compiled data represents the total number of final notices, disconnections, and reconnections issued in each month of 2024. Survey results are intended to assist with setting funding levels for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by providing reliable metrics on the frequency of utility disconnections between states. This year, Nevada received roughly $17.5 million in LIHEAP funding. 

The EIA does not break down the data on how many final notices each customer received.

"An individual customer account may receive more than one final notice, disconnection, and/or reconnection per calendar year," it noted.

The EIA declined to make someone available to answer questions from The Indy but did send over a fact sheet, noting that it only included final notices, disconnections and reconnections stemming from nonpayment and excluded reasons such as moving or safety concerns. The data also only extended to shutoffs for residential customers.

Still, the 185,000 shutoffs is nearly six times greater than the 32,000 disconnections reported by NV Energy in a service quality report it prepared for state energy regulators. The utility's smaller total only includes customers who participated in its FlexPay program. 

In 2024, roughly 27,700 people participated in the pay-as-you-go program, which has since been sunsetted. Those customers experienced 32,000 disconnections that year — more than one per participating customer.  

"Any differences in totals are often attributable to variations in definitions, reporting periods, data collection methods, or reporting requirements," the utility said in an email. "Additionally, the data EIA report[s], reflects disconnect data for all utilities in Nevada, not just NV Energy."

Southwest Gas told The Indy it had nearly 4,400 disconnects in 2024, a number much closer to the EIA's reported 5,500 for the state. The total was based on when the meter was disconnected, regardless of when service was restored.

'Another layer of protection for ratepayers'

During the session, NV Energy and Southwest Gas spoke neutrally about the disconnecting bill, but Southwest Gas privately sent a letter to Lombardo asking for a veto.

"We would like to humbly request the Governor's … veto on SenateBill 442," Dylan Keith, Southwest Gas' senior manager of government affairs, wrote to Lombardo's team in a letter obtained by EPI and shared with The Indy.

The legislation was signed into law anyway, and state energy regulators are still shaping what that will look like. NV Energy and Southwest Gas jointly proposed that they only be required to report customers who are disconnected for 48 hours or more.

"Once the regulations are adopted, the company will take the necessary steps to implement any changes required under the legislation and ensure compliance within the prescribed timelines," NV Energy said in a statement.

A companion piece of legislation that would have prohibited electricity shutoffs between May 1 and Oct. 31 and gas shutoffs during certain weather conditions failed last session.

Assm. Cinthia Zermeno Moore (D-Las Vegas), who championed that bill, told The Nevada Independent she intends to bring the issue back.

"I want to make sure we put these protections in state law and they're not just sitting in regulation," Zermeno Moore said. "I want to make sure we are adding another layer of protection for ratepayers."

Temperature thresholds are 'really not helping'

Nevada currently does not have any date-based shutoff protections for customers, according to LIHEAP.

However, it does have temperature-based protections that vary by region, age, disability and housing type and housing age.

Broadly, shutoffs cannot occur if temperatures during colder months reach 15 degrees or 20 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer, utilities cannot disconnect service at temperatures between 95 and 105 Fahrenheit, depending on circumstances and location.

The California Public Utilities Commission recently unanimously agreed to lowerthe temperature threshold at which utilities can stop shutting off power to customers behind on their bills from 100 to 90 degrees.

Nevada's temperature thresholds are "really not helping anyone," Conroy said. 

In 2024, 527 people died from heat-related illness in the Las Vegas area.

Zermeno Moore said part of the challenge with thresholds is that temperatures can vary wildly across different neighborhoods and housing types. She is a single mom who lives in a neighborhood that is a heat island — meaning the temperature reading in her community is often hotter than the official reading for Las Vegas. 

"If we go by temperature threshold, what is that threshold that would actually protect everybody … in the urban heat island?" she said. "If we put a temperature threshold of, let's say, 100 degrees. … That means it's 110 in east Las Vegas." 

Relying on federal funding assistance 

In 2024, around 11,000 gas disconnection notices were sent out in Nevada and more than 934,000 electric notices were issued.

The substantial number of notices issued in Nevada, and nationwide, shows how much some families are struggling to pay their bills, watchdog groups say.

"There's a lot of efforts made to prevent disconnection, so when disconnection does occur, that person is clearly unable to pay their bill," said Olivia Tanager, director for the Sierra Club's Toiyabe Chapter.

Both utilities shared with The Indy multistepped processes to alert customers to upcoming shutoffs and outlined the steps they take to connect customers with assistance programs.

In Nevada, electric and gas shutoffs peak in early fall, timing that doesn't coincide with peak summer or winter energy usage.

In addition to being past the hottest months when the utilities are prohibited from disconnecting customers above certain temperature thresholds, Conroy said the fall shutoffs could be tied to funding allocations low-income residents receive from LIHEAP. Program renewals happen each October, and state programs mirror the LIHEAP schedule, she said. 

In 2024, more than 17,100 Nevadans received LIHEAP funding, preventing more than 1,600 disconnections and restoring service to more than 1,000 disconnected customers. 

But the federal assistance program isn't able to reach all of the Nevadans struggling with utility bills. 

"There's just no reason for a monopoly utility to have this much power over people's safety," Conroy said.