PUCN denies public session on NV Energy’s data center-driven resource plan, advocates call foul

In June, the PUCN delayed and rescheduled key consumer sessions after facing intense public backlash when dozens of attendees were forced to wait outside in triple-digit Las Vegas heat during contentious utility rate hearings.

The PUCN lead consumer session denied last week was requested by the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP), which is under the state Attorney General’s office, in order to provide public input on NV Energy’s 2027 Integrated Resource Plan, a proposal outlining the utilities strategy to meet Nevada’s future energy needs. 

The PUCN, which regulates utility companies like NV Energy and Southwest Gas, is not required by law to hold consumer sessions to discuss utility filings, which can be approved or denied on a case-by-case basis. 

However, requests for those consumer sessions for major dockets with the potential to impact ratepayers are common and rarely if ever denied. 

Several advocacy groups signed on in support of the BCP’s consumer session request, arguing it would allow the public to provide input on NV Energy’s 2027 Integrated Resource Plan once it was officially filed with regulators in its final form. 

In its request, the Bureau of Consumer Protection said the session would provide the public an opportunity to discuss the unprecedented load growth driven by proposed data centers described in NV Energy’s  plan. The BOC noted that a joint application by NV Energy documents requests for up to 22 gigawatts of energy from data center developers. 

Making the PUCN’s denial of the session even more unusual, representatives for NV Energy indicated they did not object to the consumer session.

Olivia Tanager, the director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, said the organization had also filed a request for a consumer session on NV Energy’s resource plan, with full expectation it would be approved, and was surprised by the commission’s departure from established practice. 

“Two other consumer sessions were canceled and postponed with very limited notice from the Public Utilities Commission. Now this consumer session is being denied outright, despite the Bureau of Consumer Protection requesting it,” Tananger said. “This seems like a concerted effort to lock the public out of the Public Utilities Commission spaces.”

In denying a public session, the PUCN said consumer-session comments are not evidentiary and that statute does not require a consumer session in every docket.

Regulators at PUCN said it would not be “in the public interest for the Commission to preside over a consumer session” as it “would not create a meaningful opportunity for consumers to effectively participate.” 

“To the extent that the BCP’s motion requests a Commission-conducted consumer session, the motion is denied,” reads the PUCN’s order, adding that the PUCN “strongly encourages the BCP to hold a BCP-sponsored consumer session to hear directly from those consumers whom the BCP represents.”

Peter Kostes, a spokesperson for the PUCN, pushed back on the characterization that the commission denied the inclusion of a consumer session and public participation, saying the BCP was authorized to hold a consumer session of its own.

Kostes said the commission’s order on the motion “facilitates the scheduling of a consumer session where consumers’ input can actually be incorporated into the decision-making process,” by requesting the state’s consumer advocate conduct their own consumer session.”

Tananger, the director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, argued the responsibility to hold consumer sessions related to utility regulation should remain with the PUCN, adding that the BCP is already overworked. 

Angel DeFazio, a regular attendee of PUCN meetings, said commissioners have regularly bristled at the manner in which members of the public participate in commission public comment sessions, adding that the process is already opaque and difficult to navigate. 

As public interest in the PUCN’s activities have heightened, more barriers have been put in place, said DeFazio, including the PUCN’s decision to only hold afternoon sessions, rather than evening sessions when more people are able to attend.

DeFazio also attended the meeting in June that did not provide an overflow room for the large crowd, resulting in people succumbing to heat-illness while waiting outside in triple-digit heat during a general consumer session. 

“The commission does not want to deal with ratepayers, so they denied it,” said DeFazio. “They don’t want to hear from the ratepayers, and that’s the problem. So yeah, this is to be expected.”