Chispa Nevada volunteers protested outside the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, asking for lower rates and easier access to solar power. (Crystal Lugo)
By Suzanne Potter
The Nevada Legislature passed Assembly Bill 452, requiring NV Energy to give people they have overcharged a refund plus interest.
Ivon Meneses, a clean energy activist with the nonprofit Chispa Nevada, said the refunds are important, since high power bills are a huge problem for low-income families.
“They have to choose between to buy food or to buy medicine or to pay the power bill,” Meneses pointed out. “A lot of them, they don’t got insurance. So it hits really hard to that community.”
NV Energy said it is working to issue refunds to more than 80,000 customers who were overbilled in recent years. Advocates also touted the passage of Assembly Bill 458, which made it possible to put solar panels on affordable housing properties.
Carolina Chacon, communications adviser for Chispa Nevada, said it was previously not feasible under Nevada law.
“For anyone who rents in affordable housing properties, their landlords are able to install solar panels and then distribute the cost savings to the people who live in those buildings,” Chacon explained.
The biggest setback is a recent decision by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to allow NV Energy to raise rates and lower the amount people with solar panels can make if they send power back to the grid, something Chacon argued reduces the incentive to install solar panels.
“That project is going to start up in Northern Nevada first, so it won’t apply in Southern Nevada,” Chacon noted. “But it’ll really hurt people’s ability to access clean energy, because it makes power bills more expensive, and it will make going solar more expensive, and so fewer people will be able to have that option.”
The commission’s decision is expected to face court challenges in the coming months.
Related: Clean energy and consumer advocates call on PUCN to hold NV Energy accountable
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