Don’t get your hopes up quite yet, but SWEPCO could end up paying you for once, following $23 million worth of overcharges.
Granted, even if the proposal passes, each customer would see an amount so low they might not notice the difference. Still, in this day and age, everything counts.
Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell has announced a proposal for SWEPCO to refund $23 million to its customers after an overcharge. Yes, a $23 million overcharge. According to Campbell, the average customer can expect a credit of $62, which will be distributed over the billing cycles of July, August, and September.
Cambell says, “The money does not belong to SWEPCO; it belongs to the people. I want the people to get the money back, it’s just the right thing to do.” The overcharge affected twelve northwest parishes. Upon discovering the error, SWEPCO reached out to Campbell. He recounted that the utility company had initially wanted to allocate the overcharged funds towards other projects like tree trimming, but he insisted that the money be returned to the customers.
Campbell also highlighted that businesses consuming significant amounts of electricity would see a notable refund, potentially amounting to 10% of their usage costs. He says, “If you have a big business, it’s about 10% so think about something about something like LSU up here, the LSU hospital. They use thousands of dollars’ worth of electricity, and they will get a big, big refund, thousands of dollars.”
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is scheduled to vote on this refund initiative at its meeting on Wednesday.
