PSC orders SWEPCO refund, begins probe of company service

BATON ROUGE -- The Louisiana Public Service Commission on Wednesday approved a refund for SWEPCO customers and separately agreed to conduct a study of the company's outages. Both measures were pushed by PSC member Foster Campbell, whose District 5 includes the majority of SWEPCO’s 12-parish territory. The PSC vote means the immediate refund of $23 million that SWEPCO mistakenly billed during 2022 and 2023. The service-quality investigation is because of SWEPCO's frequent outages. “We have had a lot of outages in Northwest Louisiana,” he said. “We need to look at SWEPCO to see if service can be improved.” Campbell said one area near Shreveport had seen 10 outages already this year. SWEPCO caught the accounting error during a PSC review of the company’s billing.  Campbell asked that the money be credited to customer bills during July, August and September. “Those are the hottest months with the highest bills,” he said. For the average SWEPCO residential customer using 1,250 kilowatt-hours per month, the credit will amount to $21 per month, or a total of $63 for the three-month period. Actual bill credits will depend on customer usage.