[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I'll 2nd that.

I don't know anything about the capital costs required for utility scale implementations. I found the below and thought you might be interested in some of the info here: https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-...ar-power-plant

The best indicator of what is happening is the LCOE being achieved in Dubai and Chile. This is the total cost for energy delivered from facilities coming on line in the mid 202x.

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"At 2.99 US cents per kWh, the contract for Dewa's phase III awarded by Dewa to Masdar was the world's lowest unsubsidised solar power price in the first half of 2016. It was not a one-off occurrence. By September 2016, we witnessed another world record low tariff in Abu Dhabi with a new record-low levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for large scale solar power at 2.42 US cents per kWh," Alen noted.
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Chile is also getting bids under 3 cents per kwh.

i do not believe any of these prices are achievable in the US now...but soon.

And i would expect the eventual asymptotic price to be under 2 cents. And that is a different ball game.

Note the deserts of NV, AZ and CA are virtually ideal for this stuff.

[timothyaw]

I'm voting NO. I see how APS in Phoenix literally rips off its customers. I've seen bills there where the ACTUAL electric costs were $25 and the bill was $125! Just ridiculous. They have all kinds of required TOU, demand usage billing, etc etc.
NVenergy is the good fairy compared to them. I think if most Las Vegans saw how APS is in Phoenix, they would appreciate NVenergy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of NVenergy; they have their issues. But I'd rather deal with the DEVIL I DO know, rather than the DEVIL I DON'T know. We don't know for sure if our bills will go down on the open market. Look at what happened in California. We can't let that happen.

[beachhead]

Originally Posted by OmegaSupreme

Your vote won't make a difference. Most people here will vote No, so we get to keep the monopoly.

If it's done right, we will get lower prices. If it's implemented poorly, we will get higher prices. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support both sides of the argument, in this country and in others.

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I guess it depends on if we feel lucky.

I think it's more about common sense than luck. This is asking to change the state Constitution, and leaving the details to politicians who are far more beholden to their big money donors than to the peon individual voters. You have a much better chance of getting rich off the roulette wheel than you do of the politicians implementing something like this "correctly" when you've written them a blank check before they even start.


I want to pay as little for electricity as the next guy, but I'm not into writing blank checks to politicians. And no matter how you try and sugar coat it, that's exactly what this does.

[robr2]

Here in MA, we've have a deregulated electricity market for years. TBH, I don't know if rates have changed dramatically but there really isn't much difference in price among the power providers.

The utility commission split the bill into two parts. The old utility - in my case Boston Edison, then NStar, and now Eversource - gets paid for delivery charges which works out to be $0.1216/kWh. My town has an aggregated contract with and energy supplier that residents can take advantage of which right now is $0.1299/kWh.

[ddrhazy]

If the initiative passed, could I theoretically disconnect my house from the grid and run on solar + batteries? That would mean I could cut out the $13 monthly basic service charge NVEnergy forces on solar users.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by ddrhazy

If the initiative passed, could I theoretically disconnect my house from the grid and run on solar + batteries? That would mean I could cut out the $13 monthly basic service charge NVEnergy forces on solar users.

Actually I believe you can do that now. There are numerous houses in Clark County without any utility. Check out Cold Creek.

Doubt it makes financial sense at this point. Maybe in five years.

[hannaranch]

I believe if you have other choices and people leave Nevada Energy, those of us that stay will have to pay more for our electricity. People leave Nevada Energy, the company looses money, and those who stayed with them pay more. Just a thought.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by hannaranch

I believe if you have other choices and people leave Nevada Energy, those of us that stay will have to pay more for our electricity. People leave Nevada Energy, the company looses money, and those who stayed with them pay more. Just a thought.

In that case

1. Everyone will leave NE

or

2. The other companies will raise their rates to match NE

Nothing is free.

[beachhead]

I'm certainly not an expert, but I believe NV energy will still be paid for the "transmission" portion..their wires, transfomers, etc. So if it were to work like our broken neighbor state, you'd have an almost unreadable bill....part of it would show fees for transmission and infrastructure, parts for taxes and other junk fees , and parts from your energy supplier. You might even get two bills, one for the transmission side and one for the generation side. Of course they'll both have the "base service fee" added in, because now there would be two companies that have bookkeeping to do.


So, if NV energy was losing money, they'll just raise the transmission rates for everyone. And when they couldn't do that, they'd petition to raise the rates to add infrastructure, and maybe add another section to the bill.



Oh, and right before we moved, our local city decided they wanted in the power selling game, so we ended up "switched" to them for our power provider, without our input! I bet you never thought turning on a light switch could be so complicated....

[lvmensch]

Came across the Guinn study on Question 3. Basically they found the answer to whether rates will go up or down is not knowable. So the vote is do we go with the NVEnergy monopoly or try something else?

And the something else is a question of what the state legislature does on the statute side.

Here is the Guinn Report. Has all you may want to know about the available info.

https://guinncenter.org/wp-content/u...er-Q3-2018.pdf