Amy Dominguez, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org
Reno, Nev. – Sierra Club released its sixth Dirty Truth Report Tuesday that grades utilities across the country based on how much coal they are retiring, how much gas they are planning, and how much renewable energy they are adding. NV Energy’s two subsidiary companies are featured in the report, which finds that despite past energy transition plans that successfully built or procured sufficient clean energy, gas expansion and unprecedented load growth projections threaten to offset those gains.
NV Energy is split into two territories, Sierra Pacific Power Company in northern Nevada and Nevada Power in southern Nevada, which together serve nearly every residential customer in Nevada. For the past five years, both territories have received positive grades for their clean energy transition plans. However, this year marks their worst score since Sierra Club began tracking, with Sierra Pacific dropping to a D score.
As northern Nevada becomes a hotspot for AI data centers, Sierra Pacific has responded by planning to build over 2.7 GW of new gas capacity on its system by 2035, four times the amount it was planning last year. In fact, according to its latest filing, while data centers currently account for 5 percent of NV Energy’s sales, that share is projected to reach 64 percent by 2046. NV Energy has put forward a proposal which it claims will require data centers to cover their costs and protect ratepayers from cost shifting spurred by data centers, but those proposed protections are not yet in place, and according to testimony from the Bureau of Consumer Protection, there are still major gaps in what has been proposed. Nevada Power was recently forced to pay back Southern Nevadans after overcharging customers by $65 million over two decades, only recently agreeing to issue refunds.
In 2020 Nevadans voted to strengthen the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that requires utilities in the state to meet a certain portion of their load with renewable energy. Currently, the RPS requires that 50 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2030. But by its own admission, NV Energy now expects that it will fail to meet these requirements.
“Nevadans voted to hold utilities accountable for their commitment to clean energy, but NV Energy’s plans to build expensive gas plants to meet AI-driven demand undermines its progress, and fails to take into account what Nevadans have called for,” said Olivia Tanager, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter Director. “NV Energy needs to continue expanding its clean energy buildout while strengthening customer protections from data center costs, and Nevada’s leaders can keep it accountable to those commitments.”
“People in northern Nevada are watching their communities change rapidly as data centers move in, and they deserve a say in what that growth looks like,” said Chris Bell, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter member. “We shouldn’t be accepting more gas plants as the inevitable price of growth. Nevada has abundant opportunities to meet our energy needs with clean resources, and we should be pursuing that with the vim and vigor that the realities of the climate crisis demand.”
“The Dirty Truth report has once again revealed utilities’ overwhelming failure to plan a phase-out of their expensive and dirty fossil fuel infrastructure, and transition to clean energy,” said Sierra Club Chief Program Officer Holly Bender. “Every year that utilities drag their feet on the clean energy transition is another year where families pay record bills for expensive fossil fuels, another year of extreme weather events, and another year of air and water pollution threatening our health. We cannot afford to wait any longer to bring our grid into the 21st century. As artificial intelligence data centers drive demand for energy, utility companies are rushing to expensive and dangerous fossil fuels, leading to soaring electricity prices and worsening air pollution. The time is now for these companies to transition to affordable, reliable, clean energy to build a healthier and more sustainable energy future. The Sierra Club will continue to push utilities to deploy more renewable energy and work to lower costs and emissions."
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.