SWEPCO ordered to return $23 million to customers. Here's how you'll get the refund

The Louisiana Public Service Commission approved two SWEPCO matters offered by North Louisiana PSC member Foster Campbell, D-Bossier City, on Thursday.

Campbell's Public Service Commission District 5 includes most of SWEPCO's 12-parish territory. According to a news release from the Public Service Commission, he proposed that SWEPCO refund $23 million that was mistakenly billed by the electric utility during 2022 and 2023.

Campbell persuaded the commission to conduct a service-quality investigation of SWEPCO because of frequent outages, the news release continued.

"We have had a lot of outages in Northwest Louisiana," Campbell said. "We need to look at SWEPCO to see if service can be improved."

One area near Shreveport had seen 10 outages already this year, Campbell said.

A $23 million accounting error was discovered by SWEPCO during the PSC's examination of the company's billing practices in 2022 and 2023. To address this issue, Campbell recommended that the funds be credited to customer accounts in the months of July, August, and September.

"Those are the hottest months with the highest bills," Campbell said.

The credit will amount to $21 per month, or a total of $63 for the three-month period, for an average SWEPCO residential customer using 1,250 kilowatt-hours per month.

Actual bill credits will depend on customer usage.

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This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: How do I get the SWEPCO refund in Louisiana?