Rate increases for both Southwest Gas, Liberty Utilities on the horizon
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Gas and electricity prices are likely going up in the future as both Southwest Gas and Liberty Utilities sent out notices on their increased rates for South Lake Tahoe residents. Southwest proposed a nearly 36% increase overall, while Liberty proposed a 18.6% increase for winter residential bills and a 22.6% increase for summer residential bills.
Southwest Gas
Southwest Gas is a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada which provides natural gas to parts of Arizona, Nevada, and California—it has been the gas service company for South Lake Tahoe since 2005. In early September, Southwest Gas filed its new General Rate Case with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which was based off of its performance and rates from 2019 to 2023. The company is required to file a rate case every five years—the last base rate adjustment was authorized in April 2021.
The new rate would be implemented by January 1, 2026, which would begin the “test year” for how the new rates impact finances. South Lake Tahoe is counted as its own rate jurisdiction for Southwest Gas, separate from both Southern and Northern California.
According to the application filed with CPUC, without the rate increase, South Lake Tahoe’s current rates would result in a $10.2 million annual revenue deficiency. Ariana Knox, a representative of Southwest Gas, said that the proposed rate increase “is to recover the level of the costs incurred and investments made in the state since its last case to enhance the safety and reliability of its system and meet the continued strong demand for natural gas in California.”
The rate increase will also go towards upgrades to the two risk-based programs in South Lake Tahoe, the Meter Protection Program and School Customer-Owned Yard Line Replacement Program. These programs began implementation in 2021 and aim to protect meters from snow load through upgrades and replace customer-owned yard lines that run near schools with Southwest owned gas lines, alleviating responsibility for the maintenance from customers.
Knox also stated that Southwest has already been improving its Mobile Home Park Conversion program and upgrading its customer service information system. Southwest will also be adding another risk-based program, which Knox referred to as “Annual Leak Survey with Advance Mobile Leak Detection.”
The company will be continuing its conservation and energy efficiency programs which include rebates for residential equipment, commercial equipment, direct install of residential equipment, new homes, and solar thermal.
Southwest is also proposing to consolidate the South Lake Tahoe jurisdiction with the Northern California jurisdiction, which Knox said would “lessen the proposed increase for South Lake Tahoe customers by 10%.”
Liberty Utilities
Liberty Utilities (also referred to as Calpeco Electric) is a subsidiary of Canadian renewable energy company Algonquin Power and Utilities. It became the sole supplier of power to the Lake Tahoe Basin after buying out the stake from fellow Canadian power company Emera in 2011. The CPUC requires Liberty to file a General Rate Case every three years, with its previous rate case filed in 2022.
In July, the CPUC approved a different rate increase for Liberty to recover costs of wildfire mitigation work prior to 2022 along with other costs in their Catastrophic Expense Memorandum Account. If the CPUC approves this rate increase, it’ll be the second in six months.
According to the case filed, approximately 60% of the requested revenue increase is directly related to wildfire insurance cost increases. The company and its subsidiaries are involved in 21 active lawsuits related to the Mountain View fire in 2020, which seek out reimbursement for fire suppression, allege negligence, nuisance, trespass, and in the case of one lawsuit, wrongful death of an individual.
In the Lake Tahoe area, Liberty plans to use the rate increase to fund safety and reliability projects. These include improvements to substations like the Meyers substation to prevent fire risk, electric pole replacement, inspections of their installed weather stations, optimizing the North Shore and South Shore campuses of their operations, and vegetation management programs such as the one at Angora Ridge.
Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.
Support Local Journalism
Support Local Journalism
Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.