Entergy customers outraged as usage bills skyrocket
1st February 2021 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
Entergy New Orleans customers have discovered some nasty surprises on their energy bills in the form of substantial price spikes over the past month.
Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said the causes of these spikes are multi-faceted. She said there is a two-month lag for fuel adjustment charges, so any increase in usage from the holidays and the colder weather between Thanksgiving and Christmas will be seen now.
However, there were two Entergy power plants that went down in November. The Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Mississippi and the Union Power Station in Arkansas both suffered outages.
Why does this matter?
When those power plants go down, Entergy customers still pay for power from those plants and for whatever additional power Entergy had to buy on the energy market to compensate for their plant outages. The Grand Gulf plant, in particular, has had many problems in recent years.
“Grand Gulf has been having difficulties since 2016,” Burke said. “Every time it goes down, we (the customers) have to pay for it.”
On top of these outages, natural gas saw a 12 percent price spike in November, which would also contribute to a price bump for Entergy customers. In addition to this, the price hikes related to the recently constructed New Orleans Power Station in New Orleans East first appeared on customers’ bills in December.
In a January letter from Entergy Director of Regulatory Operations Alyssa Maurice-Anderson to the New Orleans City Council explaining what was to come for local customers, Maurice-Anderson wrote the following: “…the key driver of the variance is a $3.9 million increase in the fuel costs. Most of this increase is due to two generating plant outages, one at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station (“Grand Gulf”) and another at Union Power Station (‘UPB1’).”
In the letter, Maurice-Anderson further explained that Grand Gulf suffered an unplanned outage on November 6, received maintenance work, then went through a planned outage that ended on December 3. UPB1 had a planned outage from October 23 to November 24 to install a 2.0 MW emergency diesel generator.
What can customers do?
Burke said contacting New Orleans City Council members can help. Burke added that the city council can hold a prudence review to see if Entergy has properly maintained the Grand Gulf plant.
“The council has an extraordinary amount of power to make changes to resolve this,” Burke said.
Burke advised customers to take advantage of any kind of payment system offered by Entergy. She also said if they dispute usage claims on a bill, they should flag them immediately.
Burke said the city council can instruct Entergy to direct unused funds from the City Council Cares Program towards fuel adjustment charges. They can also extend the moratorium on shutting off customers’ power if they cannot pay their bills. On Entergy’s website (energy.com/covid-19/faq), Entergy announced plans to resume disconnecting services in February for customers who cannot pay their bills.
City Councilmember Helena Moreno has called for a Special Utilities Meeting to question Entergy on the issue.
“These higher bills couldn’t have come at a more difficult time for our people, still wading through this pandemic and its economic effects,” said Moreno in a statement. “We need Entergy to explain these costs and continue our systemic work to prevent future issues like this from occurring…Increased usage during the winter is not out of the ordinary, but doubling of some bills is alarming.”
City Councilman Joseph Gia-rrusso said he has heard reports from constituents describing increases ranging from minor to double their normal bills.
“We are meeting with Entergy to (have them) explain what happened and to fix bills that are wrong,” said City Councilman Joseph Giarrusso.
Moreno said the council would determine what additional steps would be taken after the meeting.
On WDSU News’ Facebook page, commenters voiced frustrations with Entergy’s recent rate hikes.
“What Entergy needs is competition. A monopoly can charge you whatever they want to. What you gonna do about it? Do without power?” wrote Kim Jarrell Chance.
Miesha Taylor wrote that her bill was normally $53, but is now up to $115. Kel Jones wrote that her bill jumped from an average of $85 to $120-175 since Entergy installed a smart meter. Mary Orcino wrote that her bill more than doubled.
The issues are apparently not limited to Orleans Parish, though. Commenter Francisco Ariza wrote, “I’m in Hammond and my bill went from $170 to $380.”
When asked about future competition for Entergy, Councilman Giarrusso indicated it would be challenging for another energy company to establish themselves.
“Another energy provider can come into the market, but will have to figure out how to make a huge capital investment in power infrastructure while keeping ratepayer costs down,” Giarrusso said.
This article originally published in the February 1, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
