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Two op-ed contributors: Don't buy NV Energy scare tactics

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Solar field in Nevada

By Darrin Pfannenstiel

Last fall Nevada’s voters overwhelmingly expressed their preference for opening the state’s electricity sector to competition and ending monopoly barriers to customer choice, clean energy and innovation.

Wisely, the governor appointed a task force, the Energy Choice Commission, to examine the issues to address in making the transition to a modern 21st Century marketplace for electricity. As is typical in the many other states that moved to embrace electricity competition, however, those wanting to preserve the status quo are raising red herring scare stories about competition.

The most recent example of this occurred at a meeting of the Energy Choice Commission where a utility official suggested that customer choice posed a threat to continued reliability of the electric system.

Such a blatant scare tactic is belied by the experience in more than a dozen other states that have successfully opened their electricity marketplace to competition. Experience shows that in these instances reliability of the electricity system was improved by the injection of competition into the staid monopoly industry.

Contrast that with the recent experience of utility resource planning in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, where ratepayers captive to their monopoly utility provider are on the hook for collectively billions of dollars spent to develop risky nuclear and clean-coal power plants that will never be built.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas operates a system with roughly 70,000 megawatts of peak electricity demand with no utility- and regulatory-driven integrated resource planning, and has successfully functioned through record drought, flood, windstorm, hurricanes and demand. All of this was done without the collective brilliance of centralized resources development, and without captive consumers saddled with the investment risk of resource development.

When you consider that eliminating energy monopolies results in reliability, technological and environmental gains, it is perplexing that policymakers allow monopolies to persist. And the data show consumers are literally paying a price for that.

As shown in a white paper commissioned by the Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA), RESTRUCTURING RECHARGED – The Superior Performance of Competitive Electricity Markets 2008-2016, customers in jurisdictions with choice among competing suppliers benefit in terms of improved price, investment and reliability.

State-level electricity choice programs also let customers express their environmental preferences. One of the key means by which energy suppliers vying for customers differentiate themselves from competitors is through offering “green” electricity products and services, in which the energy consumed is offset by electricity from renewable sources. Eliminating monopoly protections for utilities also eases market barriers to installation of rooftop solar energy systems.

But competitive pressures also drive energy suppliers to innovate, and offer other value-added products and services that ultimately contribute to good environmental outcomes, such as energy efficiency services, demand response programs that reward consumers for conserving energy, smart thermostats and other devices that help create efficiencies and smarter energy consumption.

We need look no further than the smartphone that many of us own today for a vivid demonstration of this market-driven innovation making a difference in our everyday lives. Had we not dissolved Ma Bell’s monopoly might we all still be relying on push-button phones with wires running into the walls?

Last fall, on Question 3, Nevada voters expressed an unambiguously clear and overwhelming preference to start the process of unleashing the innovative power of marketplace competition. They shouldn’t need to wait another two years and vote again to reiterate that preference before benefiting from the promise of competitive energy markets. Nevada policymakers should act now to move the state into a clean and innovative energy future by embracing competitive reforms in the energy industry. It’s well past time to unleash the power of the marketplace for Nevada’s energy consumers.

Darrin Pfannenstiel is president of the Retail Energy Supply Association, a broad and diverse group of retail energy suppliers who share the common vision that competitive retail energy markets deliver a more efficient, customer-oriented outcome than regulated, monopoly utilities.


By Blake Guinn

Governor Sandoval’s Committee on Energy Choice will decide our energy future. A team of 25 experts representing a variety of special interest groups has been meeting for the last few months to decide what a free energy market should look like in Nevada.

I’m one of the few public citizens actually following this process. It’s hard to devote four to five hours out of a working day to listening to dry presentations and complex policy debates, but if the public isn’t watching, who will hold them accountable? Lucky for us, NV Energy is keeping things interesting by presenting doomsday scenarios about a free-market Nevada.

NV Energy says we need them, our state’s electric utility monopoly, to make sure that the light turns on every time we flip the switch. They claim that without NV Energy’s monopoly, we won’t have anyone mapping out resource needs to predict energy consumption. NV Energy thinks a free market will mean the end of reliable, around-the-clock electricity in Nevada.

Wrong. A free market is what Nevada needs so we are no longer beholden to NV Energy. A truly free, competitive market will provide consumers with a wide selection of options and prices, without benefitting one particular company over another. A free market will understand Nevada consumers’ needs and supply what we’ve been demanding: more choices. A free market will produce cleaner, more affordable choices.

And the world won’t end, because we have systems in place to help ensure competitive suppliers provide the energy we need. The Public Utilities Commission has moved from its days of doing NV Energy’s bidding and trying to destroy the rooftop solar market. They’re taking a much more balanced approach, and don’t seem to be afraid to do what’s best for Nevada consumers.

So NV Energy can stop trying to stir everybody into a panic. We know they have no interest in playing fair. They want to protect their monopoly at all costs, but now that State of Nevada would no longer guarantee their profits in a free market, NV Energy is realizing it will have to actually compete for Nevada consumers. Only they don’t want that.

That’s why they’re turning to their old tricks and have proposed increasing rates for ALL Nevada consumers by almost a third. This is their last bid for additional revenue. Instead of being willing to compete, they’re once again blaming solar for their desire to increase everybody’s rates. Never mind what the public wants, or what bills Governor Sandoval signs or the Nevada Legislature passes.  

Many of us who voted for the Energy Choice Initiative did so because we are sick and tired of NV Energy trying to deny us access to other energy choices. That’s why we’re asking for a competitive energy market, where better, cleaner options and transparent providers will thrive.

If the PUC is serious about serving the public interest, they will reject NV Energy’s proposal to raise rates on all ratepayers. And if we’re serious about an energy future with more choices and lower prices, the Committee on Energy Choice will learn to take NV Energy’s dire warnings with a grain or two of salt. In the meantime, myself and the Nevada Consumers for Energy Choices will be watching to make sure policymakers deliver what’s best for Nevadans, not for NV Energy.

Blake Guinn, Director of Nevada Consumers for Energy Choices, can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @NVC4EC

Disclosure: NV Energy has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.
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