Demand-based energy payment system delayed in Nevada

(The Center Square) - The new demand-based energy payment system by NV Energy will be delayed until October, with the utility company citing an ongoing $63 million refund owed to customers.

The demand-based electricity prices were set to begin April 1. The change comes shortly after the energy company admitted to overcharging Nevadans for over two decades and after approval to increase its revenue.

“Our focus remains on doing the right thing for customers,” NV Energy President and CEO Brandon Barkhuff said in a Wednesday news release on the program delay. “That means listening to customers, ensuring accuracy in our billing processes and giving people the tools and information they need to understand their energy use.”

NV Energy electricity is currently priced at a flat rate per kilowatt hour in Nevada, with rates changing every few months. The company already has an optional demand charge payment method, but the new system would make demand charges mandatory for customers, nearly half of the state population.

Demand charges are based on a customer’s 15-minute peak energy usage for the day, then multiplied by four to make an hourly rate for the day. The new system offers lower per-kilowatt hour prices for electricity, but will cost more for customers who use high energy during peak hours.

“This convoluted charge will largely be a black box for most residential customers, even those who try to understand their bills and manage their energy use,” Western Resource Advocates, a conservationist group, said of the system’s approval in September. “Most customers do not have the tools necessary to avoid or mitigate a high daily demand charge, and data from NV Energy is not available in real time.”

After NV Energy’s demand charges were proposed in June 2025, the three-person Public Utilities Commission of Nevada unanimously approved the move. The PUCN has to approve NV Energy’s mandatory demand charge delay request for it to be implemented later than April 1.

The commission did not respond to a request for comment by The Center Square.

NV Energy said it wanted to better educate customers on the charge changes before going into effect, as well as to process refunds it owes to customers after overcharging. NV Energy agreed to pay $63 million to 42,856 customers overcharged since 2002 in September 2025.

“The Company is focused on the work required to process refunds to impacted customers,” read NV Energy’s motion for extension to the PUCN.

The mandatory demand charge energy system would be the first imposed by an investor-owned utility company on residential customers in the U.S.