HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — Entergy Mississippi will refund $1.2 million to the DeSoto County school system for an overbilling for electricity at Hernando High School.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission said the overcharges occurred from September of 2001 through July of 2012.
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PSC member Brandon Presley said in a news release Tuesday that the cause of the overbilling was a meter multiplier Entergy installed at the school. For large customers, a traditional meter cannot physically handle the enormous amount of electricity flowing through it. A multiplier diverts and samples a fraction the actual electricity flow and then precisely scales up its calculation to reach the correct amount of electricity actually used.
At Hernando High School, the company’s multiplier was incorrect, resulting in monthly overcharges, Presley said.
Entergy spokeswoman Mara Hartmann tells The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/Xs1) that similar overcharges are unlikely to occur with residential and most business customers. She said the energy multipliers are used with few customers, and those are mostly large industrial users.
“It’s important to note we discovered the overbilling,” she said.
Hartmann said about $973,000 was for overbilling, and more than $200,000 was in interest.
DeSoto County Schools Superintendent Milton Kuykendall said the refunded money will not be used for recurring expenses, those that occur every year.
“We put every dime we can toward instruction,” he said.
Kuykendall said about 1,100 students attend Hernando High School, one of 42 schools in the DeSoto County School District.
Entergy Corp., which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, serves 2.8 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com
