Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission will hold two days of public comment sessions Tuesday and Wednesday to gather input from the general public on Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp’s. proposed $27.5 million general rate increase. Tuesday’s hearing is in Carson City, and Wednesday’s session will be in Las Vegas.

In filing for the rate hike last March, the utility cited its need to “recover increasing operating costs and to change the way its rates are structured” for its natural gas distribution utility operations in the state, the largest of the three-state utility operations it maintains. The utility also serves parts of Arizona and the sparsely populated desert and mountain regions in an eastern strip of California.

The latest request amounts to about an $18.9 million annual increase, or 6.2%, in southern Nevada, and $8.6 million, or 9.4%, in northern Nevada. The utility is asking for the increases to be effective in September.

Growth in the nation’s fastest-growing state was cited as a primary impetus for the higher rates, as Southwest Gas has marked an increase of 70,000 customers since its last rate case. The utility told regulators it now serves 530,000 homes and businesses in Nevada, and it is proposing to increase monthly service charges substantially as a means of recovering all of its costs and having a better opportunity to earn its authorized rate of return.

Despite controlling costs and increasing productivity, it has been unable to earn its authorized returns, the utility said.

In southern Nevada, Southwest is proposing summer/winter customer charges of $11.20/month and $14.50/month, respectively; in northern Nevada, it is proposing $13.75/month in the summer and $22.50/month in the winter.

Southwest Gas is asking for rates of return of 8.03% and 9.18% for southern and northern Nevada, respectively. The company said this compares to current earning levels of 5.92% in southern Nevada and 4.19% in northern Nevada, which it characterized as “well below its present authorized levels.”

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