LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — More NV Energy customers could soon be getting refunds.
On Thursday, the utility company announced they would be expanding refunds for customers that were overcharged due to their property being misclassified. The utility previous issued $5.4 million in refunds and the latest proposal calls for issuing another $32.6 million in refunds. That's because NV Energy has found more than 42,000 additional multifamily residential locations, which were misclassified and billed as single-family properties.
"We regret the impact this error has caused our customers," Brandon Barkhuff, President and CEO of NV Energy, said in a press release. "It's important that we learn from this mistake and seek continuous improvement. We are committed to ensuring our systems and processes reflect the accuracy and accountability moving forward and are implementing better procedures and controls to prevent this from happening again."
You can read the full filing below.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
This all stems from our first 13 Investigates report of 2025, where we introduced you to Carlin Dinola, a woman who was one of tens of thousands of NV Energy customers who received a letter stating they had been overcharged by the utility company.
JANUARY 2025: NV Energy overcharges customers but only gives a partial refund
In May, I told you that the Public Utilities Commission Of Nevada discovered NV Energy had overcharged about 80,000 customers over $17 million since as early as 2001, which is when the utility company adopted the multifamily rate schedule.
"Despite overcharging more than 80,000 customers for up to 23 years, NV Energy only provided refunds to a portion of affected customers," PUCN staff wrote in part. "For the customers who received them, NV Energy capped refunds to six months, amounting to less than $2 million in refunds. "
That document, which was previously obtained by 13 Investigates, also states NV Energy did not voluntarily disclose the misclassifications, there could thousands of additional compromised accounts, and staff only learned about it through consumer complaints about insufficient refunds.
In light of 13 Investigates' reporting, the PUCN launched an investigation into NV Energy misclassification practices in June.
JUNE 2025: PUCN launching full-scale investigation into NV Energy overcharges following our reporting
It also led to Gov. Joe lombardo signing a bill into law, which helps protect Nevadans from utility overcharges and bill increases.
According to Thursday's filing, NV Energy officials said the misclassifications happened due to two significant factors.
The first one is when the multifamily rate was introduced in 2002, the company tried to identify the premises that should be converted to the new classification and did not pick up all of the premises and the ones that were missed did not include unit numbers in the address.
The second factor was properties were misclassified when they were originally entered into NV Energy's systems.
"Because many of the impacted premises are multi-family complexes, with some complexes having hundreds of units, a single misclassified complex could result in numerous individual premises being misclassified, leading to a higher number of impacted individual customers," the filing reads in part.
How do I get my refund?
If you are a current active customer, NV Energy officials say they will be giving those refunds in the form of bill credits.
If you are no longer a customer with an active account, NV Energy officials say checks will be mailed to your last known address.
NV Energy is proposing to issue the additional refunds to impacted customers, retroactive to June 23, 2017, with interest at the Companies' customer deposit rate.
What is NV Energy doing to make sure this doesn't happen again?
According to the filing, NV Energy is in the process of retaining an external professional services firm to independently review and validate the Companies' analysis and conclusions regarding the classification of residential customer accounts.
"The scope of work will include evaluating distinct processes used to identify miscategorized single-family and multi-family accounts, reviewing supporting documentation and management approvals, and conducting statistically significant testing," the filing reads in part. "This external firm will summarize its conclusions in a report that NV Energy will submit to the Commission."
In addition to that review, NV Energy said they're also working on putting other protocols in place, including weekly reports on new premises that are built, implement a review process, and creating new notifications when rates are modified by property type.