Nearly half a million dollars is being refunded this month to former members of the Bossier Rural Electric Membership Corporation and their heirs, Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell announced today.
“These payments begin to close the books on the 55-year history of BREMCO,” Campbell said.
AEP SWEPCO, which bought BREMCO in 1993, is mailing 4,971 refund checks totaling $494,170.  The average payment to a residential member is $52.
Campbell asked SWEPCO earlier this year to aggressively seek out former BREMCO members and their heirs to return more than $1.6 million in unrefunded capital credits.  The credits represent revenues collected by the co-op in profitable years over and above the cost of providing electric service.
These revenues were allocated back to co-op members based on the amount of electricity they used during their membership and the co-op’s profitability during that time.  In some years BREMCO suffered losses and generated no capital credits.
BREMCO’s bylaws stated that the credits could only be paid to heirs of former members.  Learning earlier this year that $1.6 million was unrefunded, Campbell asked SWEPCO to actively solicit claims for the money.  With SWEPCO’s cooperation, Campbell also passed a Public Service Commission order authorizing the company to pay credits to living former members as well as heirs.
The PSC order was issued in November.  This month, SWEPCO will begin processing the refund checks, including living former members for the first time.
“Like Commissioner Campbell, we are anxious that the BREMCO refunds be paid to their rightful owners,” said Nick Akins, SWEPCO president.  “We have received numerous calls from former BREMCO members, and now the checks are going out.”
Akins and Campbell stressed that SWEPCO will continue processing claims for credits from former BREMCO members and heirs.
“We urge any former co-op member or heir who has not filed a claim to do so immediately,” Campbell said.
BREMCO was founded in 1938.  At the time of its buyout by SWEPCO in 1993, the co-op provided electricity to approximately 12,000 members in rural Bossier, Webster, Red River and Bienville parishes.  Since the 1993 buyout, SWEPCO had been paying the credits as BREMCO heirs submitted applications.
Earlier this year, Campbell and SWEPCO cooperated in a public-education effort to alert co-op members and heirs to the existence of the credits and solicit claims on the money.  The effort included bill inserts and paid advertising.
Former BREMCO members and their heirs may contact SWEPCO’s customer solutions center at 1-866-789-8902 for more information on the BREMCO capital credits.