Nevada Power
Contact: Andrea Smith
Phone: (702) 367-5683

For Immediate Release

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) has scheduled consumer sessions to allow Nevada Power customers the opportunity to comment on the company's recent rate case filings requesting to reduce customers'rates by an overall 5.3 percent. Nevada Power filed on November 14 two required rate cases -- a deferred energy filing and a conservation cost recovery filing -- that when combined request a decrease of approximately $81 million in annual cost recovery and results in a 5.6 percent rate drop in the typical residential customer's monthly bill. Consumer Sessions will be held:

Wednesday, February 5 at 2 p.m.
North Las Vegas City Council Chambers
2200 Civic Center Drive
North Las Vegas, NV

Wednesday, February 5 at 6 p.m.
Richard H. Bryan Elementary School
8050 Cielo Vista Avenue
Las Vegas, NV

Monday, February 10 at 2 p.m.
Henderson Convention Center
200 Water Street
Henderson, NV

Monday, February 10 at 6 p.m.
Winchester Community Center
3130 McLeod Avenue
Las Vegas, NV

In addition to these consumer sessions, the PUCN has scheduled evidentiary hearings on these filings from March 31 through April 15.

Nevada Power is required by Nevada law to make deferred energy filings annually. Under Nevada Law, the company makes no profit on fuel and energy costs. During the preceding year, increases and decreases in fuel and purchased power costs are held in a balancing account and these changes are passed on dollar-for-dollar to customers.

The second filing by Nevada Power, is known as a GO43 filing and seeks to recover $1.9 million invested in conservation programs, as approved by the PUCN earlier this year, which include air conditioning load management programs, low-income weatherization grants and assistance, and energy education and information programs.

Combined, the two cases represent a 5.6 percent monthly decrease for single family residential customers, or from $5.92 to $9.20 per month depending upon energy consumption. Residential customers using 1,250 kilowatt hours would see their monthly bills decrease from $116.08 to $109.69.

Headquartered in Nevada, Sierra Pacific Resources is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power Company, the electric utility for most of southern Nevada, and Sierra Pacific Power Company, the electric utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California. Sierra Pacific Power Company also distributes natural gas in the Reno- Sparks area of northern Nevada. Other subsidiaries include the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company, which owns a 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas transmission partnership, several unregulated energy services companies and Sierra Pacific Communications, a telecommunications network development company.