A crew of linemen use bucket trucks to repair a utility pole and restore electricity near Houma on Sept. 12, 2024, one day after Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
State utility regulators have hired an outside consultant to look into whether Entergy Louisiana customers should have to pay extra to cover the company’s storm response to Hurricane Francine.
At its first meeting of the year Wednesday, the Louisiana Public Service Commission hired Henderson Ridge Consulting of Georgia to evaluate Entergy’s application for a new storm restoration fee. The proposed additional charge on customer bills would help the company recover approximately $182 million it spent on operations, repairs and additional personnel during and after Francine.
Francine made landfall Sept. 11, 2024, as a category 2 hurricane in Terrebonne Parish, causing more than 250,000 Entergy Louisiana customers to lose power over the next several days.
The commission’s decision to hire Henderson Ridge Consulting was unanimous and without discussion. For its work, the firm will receive roughly $188,000.
The Francine fee would vary for each Entergy Louisiana customer based on their monthly electricity use. Entergy estimates it would amount to roughly $1.10 per month for an average home that uses 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 80 cents monthly for a home that uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours.
In its fee application to the Public Service Commission, Entergy noted it lost fewer than 1,000 distribution poles and “experienced minimal impacts to its transmission system” during the storm. However, as the utility now does ahead of hurricanes, it paid for 8,000 crew members and brought in extra vehicles and equipment to standby and respond wherever needed.
Entergy asking to bill customers a storm fee for Hurricane Francine recovery
Entergy has asserted it was able to restore power to 90% of customers within three days and 100% within six days. The company credited recent grid hardening and infrastructure upgrades as factors that contributed to a speedy recovery from Hurricane Francine.
Henderson Ridge Consulting, which regularly evaluates utility rate applications for the PSC, is supposed to look into Entergy’s storm costs and recommend to the commissioners whether or not to approve the new Francine fee.
The evaluation could take about six months to complete, though it could take longer if the consultant finds any problems or discrepancies in the calculations, LPSC press secretary Colby Cook said.
Although Entergy has enough money in its storm escrow account to fund all of the Francine recovery costs, the utility said using it exclusively would deplete its balance, leaving the company exposed and underprepared for future storms.
Storm recovery fees have become a virtually constant presence on utility bills since the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Entergy Louisiana customers are still paying recovery fees for Hurricane Isaac in 2012, Laura, Delta and Zeta in 2020, and Winter Storm Uri and Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Together, those charges add up to roughly $20 per month for a home that uses 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to the Public Service Commission.
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