Entergy customers could see $11 per month spike for 15 years due to Louisiana storms

Entergy Louisiana executives revealed Wednesday that customers could see a storm recovery charge of about $11 on their monthly bills for 15 years to help offset costs due to the unprecedented number of storms in Louisiana over the last two years. The figure is a preliminary estimate that still needs to go through an assessment and approval by the Louisiana Public Service Commission.

Entergy Louisiana CEO Phillip May and Vice President Mark Kleehammer released the estimate at the Public Service Commission meeting Wednesday, which they attended to seek permission to take out a $1 billion loan that will cover part of the utility company’s recovery costs. The commissioners approved the request without objection but some of them were more upset about it than others.

“This will provide an opportunity for us to have additional cash in so we can pay creditors, the folks that show up to help put the lines up and so forth,” May said. “Those invoices are continuing to come in. This will help to pay for that, and as we continue that will put us in a better financial position. That said, we are still woefully short of where we need to be in terms of recovering these costs. So there’s still some work to do here.”

May said the multiple storms in Louisiana over the last two years have cost the company an estimated $4 billion to $4.4 billion in damages. That includes damages from Hurricane Ida, Winter Storm Uri and the 2020 hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta.

Read more: https://lailluminator.com/2021/11/17/entergy-customers-could-see-11-per-month-spike-for-15-years-due-to-louisiana-storms/