By Herman Trabish of UtilityDive
Protesters shouting affordability complaints and chanting slogans interrupted a speech by NV Energy President and CEO Brandon Barkhuff on Wednesday. Barkhuff was speaking to some 1,000 utility executives and electricity industry stakeholders during the Edison Electric Institute 2026 conference at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
After being escorted out by security, the protesters spoke to the media outside the hotel to demand the cancellation of a daily demand charge for NV Energy customers slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2027, as well as to demand action on clean energy and high electricity bills.
The confrontation shows the extent to which energy costs have stoked public anger, raising pressure on utilities and their regulators.
Utilities have made affordability a cornerstone of their public messaging as they prepare to spend over $1 trillion over the next five years to meet a surge in demand, much of it driven by large-load data centers.
In Nevada, The Public Utility Commission in September unanimously approved a demand charge and new rate design for NV Energy customers in the southern portion of the state. It also approved changing the utility’s net metering design in ways that solar advocates said would weaken customer protections and set back Nevada’s clean energy goals.
“In Las Vegas, one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, you cannot live without electricity,” said protest organizer Leslie Vega. Vega, a climate equity policy fellow at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said she’s lost loved ones to heatstroke and sees the demand charge as air conditioning rationing.
“We’re not just asking for lower rates. We’re asking for survival,” she said.
NV Energy issued a statement following the protest citing “misinformation and confusion” about the daily demand charge.
“Daily demand [charges] will lower bills for the majority of our southern Nevada customers,” it said. “We understand that energy costs are an important issue for our customers, and that’s exactly why daily demand [charges are] critical in stopping subsidies that shift costs to other customers.”
Demand charges are tied to a customer’s peak electricity use, and NV Energy’s daily demand charge is based on the energy a customer consumes during a 15-minute period of peak usage each day. The utility expects the demand charge to add about 49 cents/day to a typical customer’s bill, but says most southern Nevada customers will see monthly bills that are similar to or slightly lower under the new structure.
Regulators and the utility have said that consumers who are concerned about potential spikes on their bill from the charge can shift their electricity use, but advocates say that’s not realistic, especially for cooling. Las Vegas temperatures on Wednesday reached 103 degrees as the city experiences its longest 100-degree streak of the year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“It’s impossible” not to run air conditioning during peak hours, said Vega. She was joined outside the hotel by several dozen other protesters with the United Ratepayers coalition.
The coalition is demanding cancellation of the demand charge, which Vega called a “financial threat” against Nevadans who don’t know how it will affect their bills and can’t manage it, as well as other changes.
“What we ask is lower rates for our lower-income community, an increase in solar energy and green energy and getting away from fossil fuels,” she said. “We might not be economists and engineers, but I would like to remind our Public Utility Commission that approved Nevada Energy’s daily demand charge that their own staff economists and engineers advised them against the daily demand charge.”
Vega said the coalition will continue to lobby elected officials.
A spokesperson for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities and organized the conference where Barkhuff was speaking, said in a statement that EEI understands “people are frustrated about their energy bills” and shares those concerns.
“That’s why we’re here — working to do everything we can to lower customers’ bills and serve communities,” they said.