80K Nevadans overcharged $17M by NV Energy
NV Energy is under fire after state regulators revealed the utility overcharged tens of thousands of Nevadans in excess of $17 million.
In a filing made to the Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday, it was revealed NV Energy overcharged 60,000 “misclassified residential customers” over $17 million between April 1, 2017, and April 1, 2024 — but it has happened as early as 2001. Additionally, around 20,000 customers’ “multi-family accounts” were overcharged for an undisclosed amount.
Attorneys Jared Wigginton and Donald Lomoljo opened an investigation into NV Energy to address residential rate misclassifications, where the utility would classify a single-family home as multifamily, or vice versa, resulting in over or undercharging customers.
According to the PUC filing, NV Energy overcharged 59,939 customers across 22,101 households $17,009,429.70 by classifying them as a single-family residence, rather than multifamily. It also found NV Energy undercharged 5,438 customers across 2,451 households $2,579,744.35 because they misclassified single-family residences as multifamily residences.
“NV Energy discovered a number of customers who were charged the wrong rate for their property type, informed the Public Utilities Commission staff of the issue and has notified those customers and started issuing refunds to customers that were overcharged,” said an NV Energy spokesperson. “NV Energy has not sought repayment from those customers that were undercharged.”
Eight different organizations — Nevada Conservation League; Faith in Action Nevada; Caring, Helping and Restoring Lives; Faith Organizing Alliance; Solar United Neighbors; Chispa Nevada; Moms Clean Air Force Nevada; New Day Nevada — issued a press release admonishing NV Energy for the overcharging.
“This egregious negligence raises major concerns about the leadership and integrity of the state’s monopoly electric utility,” said the organizations. “NV Energy has not explained how these mass overcharges happened, if Nevadans were notified of these overcharges, or why customers were not promptly refunded.”
Additionally, the organizations say NV Energy lobbied in bad faith against AB 452 and other bills in regard to utilities, due to not informing the commission about overcharging customers.
Some refunds were issued
Refunds were only provided to a portion of the affected households and were capped at six months, resulting in less than $2 million reimbursed to customers. These discrepancies happened at “point of build and design,” when NV Energy would enter customers into their billing system.
“For over two decades, NV Energy’s uncorrected misclassifications of residential premises have caused substantial harm to tens of thousands of customers,” stated the filing. “Upon discovering its mistakes, NV Energy decided not to disclose its misconduct to the Commission. Instead, NV Energy unilaterally implemented an improper remedy.”
According to the filing, NV Energy was improperly using Rule 2(K)(3), a rule that only applies to Southern Nevada, unlawfully in order to provide only partial refunds. The rule that capped refunds at six months only applies to customers who chose the wrong rate classification, not the power company, said the filing.
Wigginton and Lomoljo are now calling for a formal investigation from the commission into NV Energy’s billing practices, to determine whether their overcharging was unlawful, their use of Rule 2(K)(3) was unlawul and if they are legally obligated to refund over charged customers.
“NV Energy’s limited refunds triggered public outcry and even garnered the attention of the Legislature,” said the filing.
The legislative attention mentioned is bill AB 452, which would require utility companies to reimbuse for certain overcharges with interest, revising PUCN filings and “requiring the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to open one or more investigatory dockets to examine certain matters relating to a potential cost-sharing adjustment mechanism.” Currently, the bill has passed through Assembly and is waiting on a vote from the Senate
NV Energy is actively lobbying against the bill.
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
