Whitesboro to credit affected electric customers for two years of overcharges

Whitesboro will credit affected electric customers for overcharges on their bills over the past two years, according to a city announcement issued Sept. 29. Credits will post automatically to affected accounts that are still active. The city traced the overbilling to an error in how it calculated a monthly charge tied to the cost of power. Its correction table puts the credit at about $15 for a household account that was active for the whole period.

The mistake was in the Power Cost Adjustment. That part of each bill passes changes in the city's cost of purchased power on to customers, and the council can change it month to month, according to the city's explanation of the charge. The city said residential bills counted an extra 30 kilowatt-hours in that calculation every month. Nonresidential accounts had the adjustment applied twice. The city said the error involved billing calculations, not meter readings.

Former customers who had service during the review period can ask Utility Billing to consider a credit on the closed account. For businesses and other nonresidential customers, the city said each amount will depend on the account's usage and history and on the adjustment charges that applied.

The city said it corrected the calculation Sept. 18. Its announcement does not say when the error began. The residential correction table covers September 2024 through August 2026.

The city's table shows that one household's monthly overcharge stayed well under a dollar through the end of 2025. In 2026 it was a little more than a dollar. The overcharge rose because the adjustment itself went up. The city's rate history shows that on Jan. 13 the council voted to double the adjustment per kilowatt-hour. Bills due Oct. 10 carry that higher rate.

The city also plans an independent review of its other utility calculations. According to the announcement, a future ordinance would require outside checks of city billing at regular intervals, and the city would publish the results.

In a separate case in California, Southern California Edison said in December 2025 that customers affected by discount errors in an assistance program would get credits back to April 2021. The company said those credits go beyond the three years its tariff requires.

The Whitesboro correction comes as electricity prices rise nationwide. U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that the average residential price went up from 2023 to 2024. The agency's September outlook forecasts more increases in 2026 and 2027. Those are national averages, not forecasts for Whitesboro.

Whitesboro runs its own electric utility and bills its customers directly. The Texas Attorney General's office tells people who get their power from a city to take billing and service complaints to that city.