NV Energy promises lower electric bills this year in Las Vegas Valley

In an email to ratepayers on Wednesday, NV Energy CEO Doug Cannon said customers should see their monthly bills decrease in price throughout the year because of lower natural gas prices.

Electric bills for Southern Nevada customers should be 15 percent lower at the end of 2024 compared to the end of 2023, he said in the email.

“Natural gas prices, a fuel we use to produce some of the electricity you use, have declined and we are able to pass that savings on to our customers through lower energy rates,” Cannon said in his email. “We are very excited to let you know that these lower energy costs are forecast to continue to decrease through 2024 and into 2025.”

An NV Energy spokesperson said the 15 percent decrease was for all classes of customers, but residential customers should see a greater decrease of 17 percent by the end of the year, which could result in a reduction of $30 on an average bill.

NV Energy dropped prices at the start of April as part of its quarterly adjustments. The average reduction for single-family home customers in Southern Nevada was 0.47 percent, which reduced monthly bills by 79 cents. Multifamily customers saw a reduction of 0.50 percent, which reduced monthly bills by 51 cents, according to documents filed with the Public Utilities Commission.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a news release it expects natural gas prices in 2024 will stay lower than previous years as the inventory of natural gas is higher than normal.The price of natural gas from March 2023 to March 2024 fell by 35.5 percent, and the March 2024 natural gas price was lower than any other month’s price since 1997, according to the EIA’s records.

The EIA attributes the high inventory of natural gas to the winter demand for natural gas being below average. Lower demand for natural gas could be because the most recent winter was the warmest on record in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s records.

Although some electric rates went down at the start of April, Cannon said customers should expect their total bills to increase in the summer months with the demand for energy jumping as temperatures rise. The NV Energy spokesperson said the peak demand of the summer months is typically double the peak demand of the winter months.

“Conserving energy where you can is a great way to reduce your monthly energy costs,” Cannon said in his email. “In addition, NV Energy offers a suite of products and services to help you manage your usage and cost. More information on how you can manage your energy usage leading into the summer months is available at nvenergy.com/powershift.”

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