SWEEP NEWS RELEASE
WHAT:
On Tuesday, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada will hold a hearing on NV Energy’s energy efficiency budget for the period 2013-15. The company’s popular efficiency programs provide substantial savings and benefits to hundreds of thousands of Nevadans in the form of rebates on efficient lighting, grants to schools, and incentives for retrofitting and upgrading older homes and businesses, to name a few. Experts from the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) will provide testimony highlighting the millions of dollars in benefits that these programs generate for NV Energy customers.
WHY:
With the recession hitting Nevada perhaps harder than any state in the nation, undercutting and delaying programs that actually help consumers save money would seem to make little sense. Yet that is exactly what customers of NV energy, the state’s largest utility, face if its current plans for funding energy efficiency programs over the next three years are approved by the PUCN.
The utility is asking the PUCN to approve plans that shortchange residential and business customers of more than $187 million in potential savings from efficiency programs. Cutting and underfunding energy efficiency programs that put money back in customers’ pockets continues a trend of NV Energy back-sliding on efficiency programs that has caused Nevada to fall from one of the best states in efficiency four years ago to a ranking in the bottom half today.
In particular, NV Energy has proposed underfunding and delaying re-authorization of rebates for CFL and LED lighting, one of the utility’s most popular and effective efficiency programs. If the utility maximized investments in the lighting program, savings for customers would be nearly $6 million higher than they are in utility’s preferred plan.
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, 11:30 a.m. PST
WHERE: The hearing will take place at the PUCN’s Las Vegas office, 9075 West Diablo Drive, Suite 250, in Hearing Room A.
CONTACT: Suzanne Pletcher, 303-447-0078 ext. 5, 707-489-1325 cell or [email protected]
