Electric rates for NV Energy customers in Las Vegas and Reno will decrease in October under a stipulation agreement between the utility and state energy regulators approved last week.

NV Energy announced on Monday that it expected to decrease electric rates in Southern Nevada by $15.7 million beginning on Oct. 1, 2019, which will see the average monthly residential customer bill go down by $0.79, or a 0.56 percent decrease.

Rates for utility customers in Northern Nevada will also decrease by $21.9 million annually, with residential customers seeing on average a $2.12 decrease in their monthly power bill, or roughly 2.47 percent of a monthly bill.

The decreases come as part of an agreement between NV Energy, regulatory staff of the Public Utilities Commission and the state’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and approved by the three members of the PUC last week. The decrease in rates is because of agreed-upon reductions in renewable energy public policy riders attached to all electric bills, including energy efficiency programs, a “Temporary Green Power Financing” rate and a clean energy incentive program that included benefits for rooftop solar installation.

The initial application to adjust the rates would have resulted in a rate increase of 0.42 percent across all rate classes in Southern Nevada, with an estimated 47-cent monthly increase in monthly power bills for residential customers. 

“Following a thorough, multi-month review process, we appreciate the willingness of all parties to reach this agreement on behalf of our customers,” NV Energy CEO and President Doug Cannon said in a statement.

Northern Nevada customers of the utility are also likely to see a rate decrease of roughly 50 cents a month under a general rate case filed by the utility in June. Rates for utility customers statewide went down in early 2018, after passage of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Cannon has also promised that the utility will seek a $100 million rate reduction during its next general rate case.