MARK WAITE / PVT Harold Boggess complains about his power bill for a travel trailer as three-dozen VEA members show up to criticize a proposed rate increase at the monthly board meeting Tuesday. Advertisement

The Valley Electric Association Board of Directors Tuesday deferred a proposed 7.5 percent rate increase but plan to review the rates on a monthly basis until mid-2009.

Only the cost of outdoor lighting, like security lights and street lights, will go up Jan. 1.

VEA Chief Executive Officer Tom Husted issued a press release outlining the board's decision after a Monday workshop that was closed to the public.

Three changes will be made that VEA said are revenue neutral:

* The power cost adjustment of $15 per month implemented after the closure of the Beatty Bullfrog mine in 1999 will be eliminated.

Instead, a charge of 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour will be added to the base residential rate of 8.3 cents, bringing that up to 10.27 cents per kwh.

* The facilities charge will be renamed the basic service charge. It will remain at $20 per month instead of increasing to $35.

* The general service rate class will be split into general service, small commercial and large commercial rates.

In its release the VEA stated:

"Due to the present worldwide economic crisis and the subsequent downturn in our local economy, VEA has spent the last several months analyzing a number of broad initiatives intended to defer or reduce the implementation of a January 2009 rate increase."

Husted said VEA reduced costs by $1.3 million, including a $265,000 savings, by deferring the building of a 230-kilovolt transmission line around Mount Sterling to connect with the NV Energy system until the second half of 2009.

Husted said NV Energy has yet to finalize permitting for its connection and has to resolve issues with the Paiute Indian tribe.

VEA will also save money by a voluntary deferment on paying 401k benefits to employees, reducing outside services and cutting overtime except during outages, according to the prepared statement.

"We are very cognizant of what's happening in the economy today," Husted told the audience in an ensuing question and answer period. "We have done what we can to push those rate increases into the future, to cut the fat."

Husted promised audience members they will be notified if the rate increase is reconsidered.

Judith Holmgren, vice-president of Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community, said her group will continue its investigation into whether transmission facilities are being expanded to serve the federal detention center being built by Corrections Corporation of America.

Husted denied that.

"The program began in 1996," he said. "If (CCA) become a corporate citizen of the community, it will be there for sure -- their needs as well as all new members."

VEA bgan working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on the permit for the transmission line back in 1999, he said.

"This transmission line we're going to put in has nothing to do whatever with CCA, the detention center, whatever," Husted said.

VEA board member Shelia Audna Lang was grateful the rate increase was postponed.

"We are probably in one of the worst recessions I've seen in my lifetime," Lang said. "Is it prudent at this time to put this expense out when we have so many people in trouble?"

Husted said VEA has to meet standards set by the North American Electric Reliability Association.

"Without that transmission line, we don't meet those standards today," he said. "There's no way we can get around not building that transmission line. We have to have reliable service."

"Electricity is not a luxury, electricity is a necessity," Husted said.

Concerned Citizens member Robin Lloyd said she doesn't mind the transmission line project, she was just concerned it was being built to benefit CCA.

She said she thinks CCA should pay more for its power.

Husted said CCA will pay impact fees. VEA Director of Engineering and Operations Robby Hamlin said that fee could amount to about $155,000 for 1,000 kilowatts.

Pearl West, a member of Concerned Citizens, wanted to know the capital expenditures for 2009. Husted said VEA plans to spend $13.5 million next year.

Donna Cox, another member of the Concerned Citizens group, inquired whether the VEA board was bound by the Nevada Open Meetings Act, in holding a closed workshop. Rau said they weren't.

"Yesterday was just a workshop," Husted said. "No formal actions were taken by the board."

"I do commend you on all the cuts you made. That's much more than I expected to see," Cox said. But she asked the board to delay a rate increase until members of her newly-formed committee can discuss the proposal.

Newly-elected District 6 VEA Director David Dawson said members spent eight hours Monday discussing the rates and the budget.

"How many closed meetings a month do you have where the public doesn't know about?" Cox asked.

District 1 director Brent Crowther said they only meet in private during executive sessions. He suggested critics of the board run for election.

"We could have been here for 15 hours. I personally don't want to do that. I have a life also," Crowther said.

But though Rau, the chairman of the board, didn't want to rehash the rates again, audience members were given time to comment.

Don Cox suggested putting a notice of upcoming board meetings on the monthly bill.

"As a real estate agent, there is an exodus from this town. What we have is fewer customers. You're creating an increase in power," Norma Jean Opatik said. She charged it was designed to serve the detention center. "I question the timing of this."

Husted brought up the power outage of Jan. 13, 2007.

"Our parking lot was full, people were panicking. We did not have the capacity to serve this community with the one transmission line," Husted said.

The cooperative wasn't fined for that lack of service because the outage was caused by an act of sabotage, he said.

Opatik said if the cooperative had asked for the rate increase and transmission line a few years ago, during the real estate boom, there wouldn't be such animosity. She noted Nevada now has the highest percentage of foreclosures in the nation.

Crowther shot back that he has lived in Pahrump for 40 years, having moved here when there were only 650 residents. He's had to help pay for everyone's infrastructure moving in, he said.

"I have seen the data. I'm making my decision based on facts. You're basing your opinion on lack of facts," Husted told Opatik.

Margie Sherrell said VEA should build wind turbines. Husted said conditions in Pahrump aren't the best for wind generation, pulling up real-time computer data on a wind turbine installed at Rosemary Clarke Middle School, which generated only 266.4 kilowatts in six months, or about $27.50 worth of electricity.

Paula Elefante, director of EDEN Inc., said several companies are looking at Amargosa Valley for solar plants that could mean billions of dollars. Husted said if one of those plants gets built, it will also contribute greatly to reliability.

Husted told Opatik VEA did an 18-month study on solar-powered domestic water heaters. He urged every home to be built with one.

Rau said if members don't like the cost of electricity now, the cost of solar power will be much more. Husted said VEA received several requests to buy solar power. The last offer would have been at a wholesale cost of 15 cents per kilowatt hour versus 6 cents per kwh the utility now pays.