Multiple groups have filed lawsuits against the commission that regulates Nevada’s public utilities, alleging that the panel reached beyond its authority when it approved a new formula for calculating energy bills that will raise rates for Southern Nevada solar customers.

The nonprofit advocacy group Vote Solar and the public interest law organization Earthjustice filed one of the lawsuits Nov. 26 in Carson City District Court. The attorney general’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, which previously attempted to block the formula change, filed the other lawsuit Dec. 10 in Clark County District Court. 

Both lawsuits concern the new formula for energy bills approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) on Nov. 20. 

Plaintiffs contend that the state’s energy commission acted illegally in shifting the formula to impose a new daily demand charge on Southern Nevada customers, as well as approving a separate change to how Northern Nevada solar customers are billed.

Under the new formula, Southern Nevada NV Energy customers will be charged based on the maximum amount of electricity they use during a single, 15-minute period during the day rather than the traditional billing practice of being charged for the total electricity they consume. The move is expected to penalize solar customers who sell back excess electricity they produce to the utility company in an arrangement that can cover the costs of installing a rooftop system. 

“The PUCN’s decision is a major step backward for Nevada’s clean energy future,” Chauntille Roberts, regional director of Vote Solar, said in a press release. “Nevada deserves energy policies that protect consumers, expand access to solar, and move our state forward — not backward.”

The Vote Solar lawsuit is not affiliated with the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s action, according to Camalot Todd, the communications director of the Nevada Conservation League, which is supporting Vote Solar’s efforts.

A spokesperson for PUCN did not immediately return The Nevada Independent’s request for comment.

A first-in-the-nation move

The changes are slated to begin in April and will make NV Energy the first investor-owned utility in the country to use such a formula for energy bills.

Simultaneously, the utility is lowering the amount that Southern Nevada customers pay per kilowatt hour of power they use, a move NV Energy says could lead to a slight decrease in monthly bills for non-solar customers.

However, the move is expected to raise solar customers’ bills by about $12 per month. Most of Nevada’s 144,000 solar-equipped homes are in Southern Nevada. 

Solar customers receive compensation from the utility for the energy they produce at a higher rate than what it would cost the utility to purchase the energy from a utility-scale energy source such as a solar farm. Estimates put the cost of covering the difference at around $50 million annually. State energy regulators have previously said that a daily demand charge for all customers is a “reasonable solution” for the utility to balance how much it costs to serve solar customers. 

Other solar and environmental groups expressed support for the Vote Solar lawsuit, including the Nevada chapter of the Sierra Club, Veterans Power America and the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition.