How did your Santee Cooper check stack up to the average? New data can tell you
The average settlement from a class action lawsuit between SC residents and the publicly-owned utility Santee Cooper was $169, according to records from an attorney who represented ratepayers in the suit following a failed nuclear project that cost Santee Cooper customers and co-ops $680 million.
More than 113,000 customers got credits and checks for less than $1.
The data provides answers to ratepayers who were expecting more explanation for how their settlement was calculated and got few answers from their power companies or the settlement administrator.
Over 100 people filled out a form for The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers, reporting checks worth anything from 4 cents to $670.
“We’re still looking at them and laughing,” Bluffton resident Lisa Bacigalupo told The Island Packet after receiving checks for her late father, her husband and herself that totaled $3.98. “I can’t believe they wasted a stamp on these checks.”
Data provided to The Island Packet by class attorney Jay Ward, of McGowan, Hood & Felder LLC, on Tuesday shows that 1.6 million customers got settlements.
Approximately 30% of the money Santee Cooper had collected for V.C. Summer nuclear expenses came from its direct customers, Ward said. The remaining 70% came from cooperative customers, such as Palmetto Electric in the Lowcountry.
That 70% was allocated among the 20 cooperatives and then distributed within each cooperative to its customers, he added.
“If a customer received a large check, it was likely a long-term customer and/or high energy user,” Ward wrote in an email to The Island Packet. “If a customer received a small check (or bill credit), it was likely a short-term customer and/or small energy user.”
But Ward said the 100,000 checks and credits for under $1 were unavoidable.
“We had no discretion to deny a class member its share no matter how small,” he wrote.
Santee Cooper’s average settlement check
Ward provided the following data on the settlements:
- Non-industrial customers who received checks or credits: 1,612,872
- Average check or credit: $169.28
- Average check amount: $178.22
- Average credit amount to active accounts: $12.14
- 8% of refunds/credits were under $1
- 37% of refunds/credits were between $1 and $50
- 14% of refunds/credits were between $50 and $100
- 38% of refunds/credits were between $100 and $500
- 2% of refunds/credits were between $500 and $1,000
- 1% of refunds/credits were $1,000+
Who can I talk to about the settlement?
Epiq Class Action & Claims Solution, based in Oregon, provides little information on its site about how to find help, and its frequently asked questions page is more about the deadlines a customer has missed to appeal or opt-out of the settlement.
However, if you think the settlement administrators have an incorrect address for you, you can email info@SanteeCooperClassAction.com.
To request that a replacement check be mailed to an updated address, you must mail a written and signed request asking that a replacement check be issued. You should include your current and former mailing addresses, and mail the request to Cook v. SCPSA Class Action Administrator, P.O. Box 3127, Portland, OR 97208-3127.
To learn more about the lawsuit, see The Island Packet and The State newspaper’s coverage of the lawsuit on their websites.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 4:55 AM with the headline "How did your Santee Cooper check stack up to the average? New data can tell you."
