A compact fluorescent lightbulb, natural gas personified, and a lightning bolt introduce the Public Utility Commission of Nevada’s (PUCN) children’s handbook full of activities and information for young students interested in learning “to be energy efficient and conserve energy.” This pamphlet full of coloring images, fast facts, and fun puzzles furthers the mission of PUCN to “supervise and regulate the operation and maintenance of utility services in Nevada.”
These colorful energy mascots dim in comparison to their real-life counterparts: actual men and women working in public utilities across Nevada. Four of the major public utility companies in Nevada, NV Energy, Southwest Gas, Truckee Meadows Water Authority, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority work to maintain reasonable costs, respond to population growth, develop infrastructure, and keep our state on track for a brighter future.
Natural Gas
Southwest Gas serves Nevadans and has been doing so for over seventy years. “At Southwest Gas, we’re committed to exceeding the expectations of our over 2 million customers throughout Nevada, Arizona, and California by providing safe and reliable service while innovating sustainable energy solutions to fuel our communities’ growth,” shared Karen Haller, president and CEO.
Being a public utility isn’t without its challenges. For Southwest Gas, those challenges include working alongside regulators as well as maintaining reasonable rates.
“As a regulated public utility, we work closely with our regulators including the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada,” Haller explained. One new and unique Nevada regulation is yearly leak surveys. Navigating this increase has been successful, and “the company just finished our first year of increased survey requirements,” she shared.
As regulation has increased, so have natural gas costs. “A number of external factors have impacted our cost which obviously in turn impacts the rate customers are charged.” Haller explained. “Natural gas is purchased by the company on the commercial market on behalf of our customers, and we make no profit.”
While gas cost rates have gone down the past two quarterly gas cost adjustments, a current proposal to increase the base rates will potentially take effect in April of 2024.
In spite of the rising costs, Southwest Gas continues to be a reliable utility for the community. Maintaining a utility that serves the community includes responding to both population growth and infrastructure challenges. “Nevada and our communities have grown fast for a very long time. We’ve been a part of our state’s growth for over 70 years,” said Haller.
This growth leads to high demand, but Southwest Gas meets demand while expanding service to “unserved or underserved areas of the state to bolster economic development.” Haller continued, “Our company’s Spring Creek and Mesquite customers recognize savings as a result of their conversion from propane to natural gas.”
All this growth is able to occur because of developed infrastructure and good planning. “Fortunately, we’ve not experienced significant infrastructure challenges, and I think that’s largely due to our extensive planning. We work closely with a number of stakeholders to ensure alignment with energy and growth and our environmental goals,” Haller said.
Leave the Lights On
When it comes to NV Energy, commitment means something. “We’re here 24/7,” said Doug Cannon, CEO. When most people settle in to their homes or businesses to wait out looming bad weather, NV Energy’s linemen and linewomen work to keep the lights on.
Customers might appreciate the work but wonder about the high rates. According to Cannon, “Energy rates are going down in 2024. That’s good news for our customers and we’re really excited about that.”
As NV Energy continues to develop, their long-term planning is based on three factors: reliability, affordability, and sustainability.
Reliability ensures all consumers have supply when they need it. As Nevada grows, this concern with reliability grows. Cannon elaborated, “Reliability is becoming more and more important as more technology companies come into the state.”
The second focus is affordability. “We recognize for many businesses energy costs are one of their biggest expenses. We’re focused on operating a very efficient organization here at NV Energy,” Cannon explained.
Developing more renewable energy resources is one way to work toward affordability as well as sustainability, the third focus. Sustainability includes development of solar resources and geothermal as well as building transmission systems to move those resources where they’re needed. One of the projects connected to this idea is the Greenlink Nevada project.
“This is the largest transmission project that’s ever been undertaken in Nevada,” said Cannon. “It’s a line that will go up the entire west side of the state to connect northern and southern Nevada. Then, there will be a second piece that will run along the center of the state. In the end, it’s about a $2.5 billion investment in the state of Nevada.” This development will improve the reliability of the system as well as develop renewable energy resources throughout western Nevada.
Moving forward, NV Energy faces two main challenges: procuring talent and supplies. Cannon said, “We are very fortunate to have strong relationships with the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and they provide top quality workers for our projects. But, we always could use some more qualified folks that are interested in learning the trades.”
The second need is supplies. “There are some big parts that we need for these projects that have long lead times,” Cannon said. “We’re ordering those parts well in advance. So, right now, we do not anticipate the supply chain holding up any of the major renewable energy or transmission projects that we’re currently developing.”
Cannon summed up the work of NV Energy and its many employees: “Ours is the opportunity every day to light the homes of our customers, to power the businesses of our customers, and provide energy for the state’s economy,” he continued.
Water Up North
Being proactive is important to the team at Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), especially as the costs of operating continue to rise. Questions about demand, growth, facilities, and costs prompt the organization to plan for the future and continue to supply water to the region. “At TMWA, we don’t control where the growth occurs, how much occurs. We’re just in charge of ensuring that there’s water resources available for that growth in the future,” John Zimmerman, CEO of TMWA, said.
One way the team at TMWA is working toward a sustainable future is through the American Flat Project. “TMWA would pay for and build, with the City of Reno’s support and cost sharing, what’s called an advanced purified water facility,” Zimmerman said. The plant would first be used to irrigate an alfalfa field owned by the City of Reno. “After that, it’s indirect potable reuse, so we would use it to store in the aquifer. We would inject that advanced purified water into the aquifer for several years and ultimately bring it out through our production wells and deliver that to TMWA customers,” he continued.
“A lot of utilities are looking at indirect potable reuse at the start and then ultimately direct potable reuse because the technology is there,” said Zimmerman. This futuristic idea is fast becoming a reality, but it’s not without a price tag.
“It’s getting expensive. All of that stuff is much more expensive than simply pulling water from the Truckee River and treating it for delivery to our customers. Water will get more expensive in the future,” Zimmerman predicted. It’s a challenging environment in which land is becoming sparser, supply chain issues can pose problems, and costs are on the rise.
Fortunately, the organization’s leaders maintain a business mindset seeking to run a successful utility now and many years into the future. Zimmerman explained, “A big part of TMWA’s success is being proactive.
Our predecessors had the foresight to buy Independence Lake early in the 1900s, and then we also bought Donner Lake and the other half of it just in 2016. We’re being proactive, and we’re continuing that culture of looking out way into the future to make sure we’re as prepared as possible.”
Another facet of that preparation is ensuring there are enough trained personnel to carry out the work at TMWA. Zimmerman continued, “It’s really important to develop new talent, bring them in as soon as possible so they have some time to study under those folks who have been here a long time and have a lot of experience.”
Water Down South
Since the 1990s, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has been overseeing, under the direction of seven member agencies including Las Vegas Valley Water District, southern Nevada’s water resources. This is no small task considering a booming population in the middle of the Mojave Desert and drought conditions.
Currently, SNWA is looking to the future in a bid to create a sustainable and redundant system to insure a consistent, reliable water supply. SNWA has several capital projects including the Horizon Lateral and the Apex Water and Wastewater Transmission project.
Big projects come with big price tags, and inflation hit SNWA just like it hit the rest of consumers. However, a plan recommended by citizen’s advisory committees and approved by local elected officials seeks to soften the blow.
“Our rates are designed essentially to track inflation,” John Entsminger, president and CEO of SNWA, explained.
“If we can keep our increases within the 4 to 4.5 percent range, they can budget for that every year just like we can budget for cost increase every year, but nobody wants to be surprised by those double-digit increases in one year,” Entsminger continued.
These challenges haven’t stopped the Southern Nevada Water Authority from making huge strides to serve the public and develop water initiatives that have put Las Vegas on the map for more reasons than it’s well-known gaming and entertainment industries.
Entsminger shared, “Our community is really leading the world in urban water conservation. Despite the growth that we’ve seen in our community having added over 800,000 new residents to southern Nevada in the last twenty to twenty-two years, we actually used less water in 2023 than in any year since 1992. We are proving to the world that you can simultaneously have a robust, growing, and diversifying economy and reduce your overall water footprint at the same time.”
In the last three years (2020-2022), forty-seven thousand water connections have been added, including residential connections and entire new hotel casinos. “Having added those new connections, our water use declined 12 percent in that same three-year period,” said Entsminger.
This improvement has been a community-wide effort. Entsminger explained, “Over the last 20 years, we’ve removed enough turf in this valley that you could actually lay an 18-inch-wide piece of sod around the earth at the equator.” Transitioning away from a midwestern approach to landscaping that uses water freely to a desert-friendly landscape has been highly successful. Entsminger praised the local community for their role. “It’s been a community-wide effort to drive down our water use while we are seeing this expansion.”
The Utility of Collaboration
Whether through gas or electricity or water, Nevada utilities strive to serve Nevadans and work together to meet the needs of our communities. Haller summed it up well, “We believe we have a great collaboration and working relationship with all of our utilities. Hopefully [those relationships] make the process seamless when [customers are] developing and growing, especially with building, whether it’s residential or business and industrial growth.”
Cannon echoed her sentiment, “The public infrastructure providers in the state of Nevada do try to work together on important policy issues to make sure we’re serving the needs of Nevadans and to make sure we’re positioning Nevada for future economic growth and economic development.”
