A week after it was revealed that NV Energy overcharged customers by millions of dollars since 2001, the utility announced its CEO had departed for an energy company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and has been replaced by its general counsel.

In a brief statement, NV Energy named Brandon Barkhuff as president and CEO of the utility company that serves most of Nevada, replacing Doug Cannon. Cannon became CEO in 2019.

According to the email, Barkhuff previously held positions in the company as senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer. He joined NV Energy in 2011 as assistant general counsel and was previously in private law practice.

The leadership shakeup comes a week after staff of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada released an investigation showing that NV Energy overcharged roughly 60,000 residential customers more than $17 million between April 1, 2017, and April 1, 2024. According to the report, the utility misclassified their types of residences, meaning they were charged a higher rate than they should have been.

The report calls for the commission to open a formal investigatory docket to look into whether the company’s actions were unlawful. The utility also overcharged an additional 20,000 multifamily customers during that time for an undisclosed amount.

The total number of customers overcharged and how much they were overbilled is likely much higher because the utility claims it lacks billing data from 2001 to mid-2017.

Cannon did not comment on the investigation.

As CEO of NV Energy, Cannon oversaw the ongoing buildout of Greenlink North and West, a pair of massive and expensive transmission projects forming a kind of transmission triangle between Reno, Ely and Las Vegas. The $4.2 billion project was approved by the Bureau of Land Management last year and has been heralded by the utility as a necessary step to improve system reliability and bring clean power online — though conservationists have balked at the cost and questioned how its construction will damage critical habitats for endangered species. 

American Electric Power (AEP) in Columbus, Ohio, a utility company that serves more than 5 million customers in 11 states, announced Tuesday that Cannon had been named president of AEP Transmission, effective June 11. 

Cannon joined NV Energy as senior vice president and general counsel in 2013, after the company became part of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. He was named president in 2018 and CEO in 2019, with responsibility over the fully integrated gas and electric operations of NV Energy and its subsidiaries.

NV Energy serves about 90 percent of the state. Like many utility companies, it is designated as a regulated monopoly, meaning it must provide electric service to all customers within its territory and is subject to oversight by regulators charged with ensuring the company fairly treats its customers, who don’t have the option of choosing other providers. 

In a press release sent Tuesday afternoon, the Nevada Conservation League, along with other community and consumer protection groups, criticized the company’s stances, including on rooftop solar policies, and said Cannon’s departure “marks the beginning of a broader reckoning for the state’s monopoly utility.”

“Doug Cannon’s resignation has been a long time coming,” Kristee Watson, the conservation league’s executive director, said in a statement. “This is a utility that has greenwashed its image while blocking real progress. The new leadership must break with the past and start putting customers first.”

This story will be updated.