The City of Bentonville’s electric utility has reached a legal settlement with its wholesale power provider.
According to Travis Matlock, electric utility director, the settlement will save Bentonville customers $900,000 over six years.
Bentonville is one of a handful of cities in Arkansas that operates its own power company. However, it doesn't generate electricity itself—it purchases it from Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO).
Bentonville, along with several other utilities, pursued legal action following disputes over how SWEPCO was charging certain costs.
In recent years, citing revised EPA regulations, SWEPCO and its parent company began taking coal plants offline.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees these agreements, sets rules for expenses like plant depreciation and how retirement costs can be passed on to customers.
The dispute centered on how much customers should have to pay toward the costs of older coal plants that were shut down earlier than expected. The providers argued that SWEPCO was charging more than what was fair under agreed-upon formulas.
As part of the settlement, SWEPCO will revise how it bills providers, including Bentonville’s electric utility, and will issue refunds if past charges exceeded what the formulas allow.
The Bentonville City Council authorized the mayor to sign the settlement at its meeting on October 14.
