News

Nevada regulators could vote today to approve about $2 billion in spending for NV Energy, including new gas, solar and battery resources which critics say should have received more scrutiny and could have been cheaper.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on NV Energy's plans to shut down Nevada's last coal plant by 2025, quoting Sarah Steinberg criticism of the utility's proposal to replace the plant's energy source with natural gas.

NV Energy is committing to shutting down its last coal plant by 2025, the utility announced Wednesday, and will spend nearly $2 billion to do it.

The news comes after questions were raised early this year on whether the state’s largest public utility was going to be able to shut down its coal operations on schedule.

Utility Dive reports on the passing of a bill that may undermine Nevada's transition to more affordable and accessible clean energies, quoting Sarah Steinberg on how the legislation could jeopardize the state’s regional clean energy leadership.

Clean energy advocates and conservation groups say AB 524 makes significant improvements to the state’s IRP process — and if NV Energy can build new resources at the lowest cost, then so be it.

“If that makes sense for Nevadans, sure. But it needs to go through the IRP process,” said Christi Cabrera-Georgeson, deputy director of the Nevada Conservation League.

NV Energy last year proposed a 400 MW gas peaker plant through an IRP amendment. It was approved in March, but opponents say the process did not allow for sufficient public input or review. 

Advanced Energy United and Interwest Energy Alliance call on Nevada to establish regular, predictable competitive solicitations for energy resources to catch up with other western peers and ensure least-cost, most reliable energy for ratepayers

CARSON CITY, NV, JUNE 21, 2023 – Late last week, Governor Joe Lombardo signed Assembly Bill 524, a bill making changes to the state’s integrated resource planning (“IRP”) process for electricity. The IRP is a chance for NV Energy, the state’s only investor-owned electric utility, to determine what generation and other resources it needs over the long-term to serve Nevadans with reliable and affordable electricity.

Advanced Energy United applauds Senator Rochelle Nguyen, the Nevada legislature, and Governor Lombardo for coming together to modernize the state’s gas utility regulations to prepare for a rapidly changing energy system.

Program will offer incentives for the purchase of zero-emission medium-and-heavy-duty vehicles 

CARSON CITY, NV, June 12, 2023 – Today, Advanced Energy United, the national association of businesses working to achieve 100% clean energy and electrified transportation, commended Governor Lombardo for signing into law AB 184, which established a Nevada Clean Trucks and Buses Incentive Program. 

“This legislation will drive Nevadan businesses and fleets forward into a modern, high-performing, lower-cost, clean transportation future,” said Gabriela Olmedo, policy associate at Advanced Energy United. “We thank Assemblyman Watts for championing this important bill, and Governor Lombardo for recognizing the economic opportunity that the growing electric vehicle market offers the state.”

WASHINGTON, DC, May 17, 2023 — Today the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its annual summer reliability assessment warning Western states that they are in for another summer of elevated risk of blackouts due to extreme heat in 2023. NERC issued a similar warning last May, before record heat waves strained energy supplies in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and the Pacific Northwest in September.

Nevada Current announces Nevada's plans to build a new power plant as a solution to building a more reliable energy source, including Sarah Steinberg's staunch disapproval as NVEnergy continues to cost ratepayers more dollars.

Nevada regulators have approved an NV Energy plan to build a natural gas-fired power plant they say will help address system reliability as weather grows more extreme and unpredictable across the region.

The energy monopoly will build a 400 MW gas-fired combustion turbine – or “peaker plant” – on the site of the Silverhawk Generating Station in southern Nevada to cover increasingly volatile seasonal peak demand. The gas plant would be the first built in Nevada in nearly 15 years.

Peak plants typically only run a few hundred hours of the year – or sometimes even less. Most of the year the plant sits idle and unused. The Silverhawk plant will be allowed to operate up to 700 hours annually.

Advanced Energy United expresses disappointment in Nevada Public Utilities Commission's decision to approve a new "peaker" plant for Nevada.

Washington, D.C., March 14, 2023 -  Today, national business association Advanced Energy United expressed disappointment with the Public Utility Commission of Nevada’s decision to approve NV Energy’s proposed gas-fired “peaker” plant in the utility’s 4th Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) amendment. This will be Nevada’s first new fossil-fuel electricity generation plant in approximately 15 years, otherwise at odds with the state’s move to clean energy. Every three years, utilities are required to comprehensively evaluate options to serve their customers’ needs at the lowest reasonable cost using a combination of supply-side and demand-side resources. But that same comprehensive analysis is not required for amendments, which can also receive expedited approval that makes it hard for intervenors and the Commission to examine the proposal to ensure that it is prudent.