Your Southwest Gas bill is going down this fall, not up

Southwest Gas customers will start to see some relief on their bills starting next month as the company is set to lower certain rates.

The natural gas company said it would reduce its quarterly rates by roughly 3 percent to 3.5 percent for residential customers throughout Nevada effective Oct. 1.

Southern Nevada impact:

Single-family residential customers can expect their rates to go down by 3.1 percent, which will decrease the average monthly bill by $3.26.

Multifamily residential customers will see their rates go down by 2.9 percent, which will decrease the average monthly bill by $1.68.

Northern Nevada impact:

Single-family residential customers can expect their rates to go down by 3.6 percent, which will decrease the average monthly bill by $5.78.

Multifamily residential customers will see their rates go down by 3.4 percent, which will lower the average monthly bill by $3.15.

This decrease in rates will result in Southwest Gas seeing a decline in about $44.4 million in revenue. The money received goes toward natural gas purchase costs for Southwest Gas and the company doesn’t see an impact to its profits based on these rate changes.

Southwest Gas attributed the rate decrease to a continued decline in natural gas prices.

“We are able to lower our Q4 2023 gas cost rates because the 12-month average of gas costs used to establish the October – December 2023 rates is lower than those used to establish July – September 2023,” said Amy Washburn, a Southwest Gas spokesperson, in an emailed statement.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the cost of natural gas spot prices in the nation have decreased by 185.5 percent from July 2022 to July 2023.

This decrease is the first time Southwest Gas has decreased its quarterly rates in a year after filing four consecutive quarterly increases. This decrease marks a sharp difference from the last quarterly rate adjustment which increased Southwest Gas’ revenue by roughly $283.6 million.

The decrease in gas rates is greater than decreases for electric rates as NV Energy is also set to lower its quarterly rates by roughly 1 percent to 2.5 percent, although NV Energy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that rate decreases could reach up to 35 percent to 40 percent by 2024.

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com.Follow @seanhemmers34 on X.