On Tuesday, the Mississippi Public Service Commission ruled that Mississippi Power be required to give back all money collected from customers since 2013 for increases related to the Kemper plant.
This ruling stemmed from the February decision from the Mississippi Supreme Court, which required the company to issue the refunds, according to a release from Mississippi Power.
Construction on the Kemper plant, a 582 mega-watt electric power plant, began about five years ago. According to court documents, the Supreme Court discovered higher rates for nearly 186,000 customers to recover costs for the Kemper plant project. The court was not in favor of the increase because no hearings were ever conducted to make sure Mississippi Power was funding the $6.2 billion project appropriately, according to previous Item coverage.
According to the release from Mississippi Power, the company’s focus is providing customer refunds in the most secure and immediate way possible and meeting the Commission’s requirement related to the Kemper rate.
The Public Service Commission has decided the refund should be issued either in the form of a check or in a bill credit. Mississippi Power believes the most efficient way to issue the refunds would be through a bill credit. According to the release, this method would be safer than mailing checks to customers, because it could take months for the checks to be verified, processed and mailed to customers.
In compliance with the commission’s decision, over the next two weeks Mississippi Power will release a plan on how both refund methods would work. Mississippi Power is also taking the appropriate steps to ensure the Kemper rate collection has ceased by the August bill cycle.
“There will be many administrative details to sort regardless of the refund method and it requires thoughtful consideration, which we believe the PSC will give to the matter. Mississippi Power is committed to working closely with the PSC to comply with its requirements and do what’s in the best interest of all our customers,” Mississippi Power stated in the release.