With more storms on the way, about 71,000 Nevada residents are recovering from power outages over New Year’s weekend caused by wet and heavy snow in Reno, Sparks and Carson City.

This week’s Indy Environment looks at the main points from a three-day Colorado River conference held in Las Vegas as the water users face an ongoing crisis and looming cuts.

This week’s edition of the Indy Environment newsletter features an interview with Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who visited Las Vegas last week as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to hasten the transition to more renewable energy and to sell the American Jobs Act. Granholm discussed Nevada’s position in the energy transition.

Sponsored by Sen. Chris Brooks (D-Las Vegas), SB448 would expand the state’s transmission infrastructure in line with NV Energy’s multibillion-dollar Greenlink Nevada initiative, along with requiring a $100 million investment in electric vehicle charging stations, expanding rooftop solar to multi-tenant and commercial buildings and proposing a host of other measures aimed at lowering carbon emissions and building up renewable energy infrastructure.

This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at a hearing Tuesday on AB380, legislation that would require gas utilities to go through a comprehensive planning process meant to consider the effects of decarbonization on their operations and ratepayers.

More than two months later, NV Energy is releasing more information about the decision-making process that led to the request for power conservation, as well as data that may help state utility regulators determine whether the conservation request was a one-time unusual request or a sign that the utility needs to do more to ensure resource adequacy as climate change and other factors drive more strain on the system.

Members of the Public Utilities Commission voted 2-0 to approve the stipulation agreement on Wednesday, the final stamp of approval before the utility company can begin processing the bill credit for customers (Commissioner Tammy Cordova abstained, as she worked on the docket in her previous role as a regulatory attorney for the commission).

But there’s a positive sign; combined under-construction and pending storage projects will see NV Energy surpass a 100 megawatt energy storage goal seven years ahead of schedule.

The three members of the commission — which oversees and regulates utility businesses in the state — voted unanimously during their Wednesday meeting to launch the investigation, an initial step that will allow regulators to take a more active role in overseeing supply adequacy, after electric demand over the past week have far outstripped projections.

The Commission has scheduled a discussion on opening the investigation docket for its Wednesday meeting, which is described as an “investigation regarding resource adequacy and planning to ensure that electric utilities’ supply of energy is sufficient to satisfy demands and maintain reliable, continuous service.”

“This really is an unprecedented event on the Western energy grid, and we are seeing unprecedented demand on the Western energy grid right now,” Cannon said in an interview. “You talk about 100-year flood events, these kinds of unprecedented events that occur, I would put the demand that we’ve seen over the last five days in that category.”

Now, more than a decade later, the utility has proposed another major transmission line upgrade. Dubbed “Greenlink Nevada,” the estimated $2 billion transmission project would upgrade existing lines between Ely and western Nevada (centered in Yerrington) and a new line between Las Vegas and Yerrington, forming a transmission line triangle inside the state.

The request to lower electric rates was made in the utility company’s general rate case application filed on June 1 and makes good on a year-long promise by the state’s primary electric utility to reduce its revenue requirement — the calculated amount of profit its allowed to make on the sale of electricity.

Although the new tariff is couched in economic recovery language — saying it will allow large businesses and government entities to “put people back to work and can provide critical services to communities during this time of recovery” — the pricing plan has been in the works for more than a year.

Jim Murren, who helms the private-sector task force charged with assisting the state’s coronavirus response, envisions a near future in which 30,000 people a day will be tested in-state for COVID-19.

He said the group’s foremost task would be finding and securing sources of protective equipment and test kits, even amid fierce competition between states and the federal government to obtain needed supplies.

This week's Indy Environment newsletter looks at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's request to intervene in permitting for proposed energy storage projects at two Nevada lakes. It also breaks down the conversation around Clark County's climate efforts and the county's federal lands bill.

A new study by S&P Global Market Intelligence published earlier this month shows that average power prices in Nevada decreased by 14.5 percent between 2009 and 2018, the largest such decrease of any state in the country over the ten-year time period. 

NV Energy announced on Monday that it expected to decrease electric rates in Southern Nevada by $15.7 million beginning on Oct. 1, 2019, which will see the average monthly residential customer bill go down by $0.79, or a 0.56 percent decrease.

In his first presentation to legislators as the utility’s CEO, Cannon reiterated his predecessor Paul Caudill’s pledge to eventually transition the utility to 100 percent renewable power while supporting an increase in the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50 percent by 2030, a position the company staked out last year.