Central District PSC Commissioner De'Keither Stamps (D) speaks at the Neshoba County Fair (Photo by Frank Corder | Magnolia Tribune)
- Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps will hold a roundtable discussion on Monday in Jackson on a potential statewide public utility credit system.
One of Mississippi’s three Public Service Commissioners is gathering public comment as part of the process to establish utility credits when outages occur during fair weather.
Next week, Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps (D) will host a roundtable discussion to gather public input on a potential statewide public utility credit system.
Power outages are expected when storms or other natural disasters strike the state, but when they occur for extended periods during fair weather, Mississippians still face the additional expense of replacing spoiled food or purchasing fuel to run a generator to keep essential appliances running when the service should otherwise be stable.
The roundtable will be held Monday, November 16 at 3 p.m. in the docket room of the Mississippi Public Service Commission located at 501 N. West Street in Jackson.
The public meeting will give Stamps an opportunity to gather comments from the state residents, business owners and other stakeholders on a potential system that would place reasonable utility credits for outages not caused by storms or other natural disasters. The goal is to push towards more reliable utility services, he said.
“We have outages in Jackson where restaurants are out in Fondren on a Sunday,” Stamps told Magnolia Tribune. “That’s their main day. When there’s an outage in a restaurant, they can’t even prepare meals.”
A number of states already have policies in place that allow utility customers dealing with extended outages to receive bill credits.
“Citizens deal with reliability all the time, and when they have situations where they have unreliable service, they in turn have been asking, ‘Do we get some kind of bill credit for unreliable service?’ Because it’s the utility’s job to provide reliable service,” said Stamps.
In some states, Stamps said affected utility customers may receive up to $35 in credit for every day an outage lingers.
“Mississippi does not have that in place and I’m looking to see how we can make steps towards getting that done,” Stamps explained.
The proposed framework would review utility reliability standards, frequency of outages, and how long it takes for service to be restored. The intent is to establish a system that provides credits automatically without the need for customers to submit claims.
Stamps said his goal is also to ensure the costs of the credits are not passed on to ratepayers but instead come from the utility company’s revenues.
He noted that the roundtable is part of the process to putting utility credits in place. Last month, the matter was put on the Public Service Commission’s docket as the first step.
“That starts the process, and we’ll be following the Administrative Procedures Act to roll this out,” Stamps explained. “I would encourage citizens to show up and let your voice be heard.”
