Amended Nevada Bill Aiming To Curb Exit To Competitive Exit Supply Includes Carve-Outs From Shopping Cap

A proposed amended version of S.B. 547 in Nevada, which would revise the current provisions governing the ability of large customers to apply at the PUC to take competitive electric supply, include certain carve-outs from competitive supply load caps that could otherwise be established under the bill

As previously reported, the bill would provide that the PUC shall require the utilities to include in their integrated resource plans, "a proposal for annual limits on the total amount of energy and capacity that eligible customers may purchase from providers of new electric resources through transactions approved by the Commission pursuant to NRS 704B.310."

The amended bill would allow some customers to still take competitive supply notwithstanding the limits.

Specifically, under the amendment, the proposed annual limits shall not apply to energy and capacity sales to an eligible customer if the eligible customer:

(1) Was not an end-use customer of an electric utility at any time before the effective date of the bill;

(2) Would have a peak load of 10 megawatts or more in the service territory of an electric utility within 2 years of initially taking electric service; and

(3) Commences taking electric service no sooner than 2 years from the date on which it files an application pursuant to NRS 704B.310 (exit application), or satisfies its energy demands through a new electric resource described in NRS 704B.110(1), as amended by the bill, which is a renewable energy facility that covers at least 50 percent of the eligible customer’s average annual load.

The amended bill would provide that customers leaving utility supply shall pay various fees associated with energy efficiency, low-income energy assistance, net metering and other public policy goals

Furthermore, exiting customers would have to pay a renewable base tariff energy rate set by the utility, reflecting the utility's uneconomic renewable costs which would now be unbundled from the supply rate and paid by distribution customers regardless of supplier