LAS VEGAS -- Get ready to pay more to keep the lights on. One family says they are at the breaking point with a rate increase announced by NV Energy Friday.
On everyone's NV Energy bill, it lists what's called a Deferred Energy Adjustment. That means NV Energy is giving users a credit for natural gas prices being at historic lows. But if those prices go up, users will begin to feel the full effect of a 10 percent rate increase.
"We do not run out air conditioner at all during the summer. Simply because we can't afford it," said Cherrie Burns.
The Burns family's $350 NV Energy bills got to the point they made a choice -- use their underpowered garage swamp cooler and direct that air inside the house. During the summer months, it would get into the mid-80's inside. The family has tried NV Energy-supplied meters to decrease their usage with no effect.
NV Energy says with their Deferred Energy Adjustment, the average monthly cost will only go up around $5.
"The difference between what we are allowed to charge and what we are actually paying for the fuel is the DEAA. That comes back as a credit or what the customers may owe us as the end of the day. Right now, it's a credit," said Andrea Smith with NV Energy.
But that is dependent on the natural gas futures market. NV Energy is forbidden by state law to make profit on the natural gas it buys. But if the market price consistently goes up, those increased prices are passed on to consumers. This year alone, those market prices have fluctuated 60 percent.
Forbes magazine recently wrote the headline NV Energy About to Put More Money in Your Pocket. That headline was meant for investors, now seeing an increase in stock dividends four years in a row. And while that increase is less than comparable energy companies, NV Energy's stock performed ahead of the pack the same month it's rate increases were in front of the Public Utilities Commission.
"Our shareholders are entitled to a return. We are a for-profit company -- highly regulated company," said Smith.
"We have budgets. I now have to try to make that work and I don't know how to do that. We don't even know what you're asking for. How do you do that? How do you sleep at night?" said Cherrie Burns.
Compared to similarly sized energy companies, NV Energy is at the middle of the pack at 6.79 percent profit in the last 12 months, according to financial firm Capital IQ.
