Consumer agency wants fee dropped for declining NV Energy smart meter

The state Bureau of Consumer Protection is asking the Public Utilities Commission to drop a one-time fee for people who want analog power meters instead of smart meters.

The bureau filed a motion Tuesday asking the PUC to amend a previous order allowing NV Energy to collect the fee, which is estimated at $98.75 for customers in Southern Nevada and $107.66 for those in Northern Nevada. There is also a monthly meter-reading fee of $8.14 in Southern Nevada and $8.04 in Northern Nevada.

The PUC estimated 4,500 customers in Clark County and 3,000 in Northern Nevada would prefer an alternate to the smart meters, which have raised health and privacy concerns with some people. The smart meters can electronically send power-use data back to NV Energy.

Las Vegas-based NV Energy, which serves about 90 percent of Nevada’s population, plans to replace all 1.35 million of its analog meters with digital ones. It will cost about $301 million to replace the analog meters, with almost $140 million of that covered by a U.S. Department of Energy grant.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/11/consumer-agency-wants-fee-dropped-declining-nv-ene/