Help with your utility bill

(by Alliance founder Karen Wimpelberg)

March 4 - Are you getting hot under the collar about paying your high utility bills for last month and probably this month due to the extremely cold weather? Learn ways to get help and help yourself, and learn the regulations in place for extreme weather conditions and service cutoffs.

Part I: Get help and help yourself

If you have trouble paying your bill, you should definitely call 1-800-ENTERGY (368-3749) and request an extension or DPA (deferred payment arrangement). You can also do the exact same thing by going to www.entergy.com and registering for My Account Online so you can handle it over the internet. They typically don’t classify an extension request or a DPA as a customer complaint unless the customer states that their meter reading is too high, the fuel portion of their bill is too high, etc. They usually just work with you to put you on some type of payment plan. Unfortunately, they will, have to charge you interest, so be prepared for that.

Customers whose income is below 200% of poverty level are also eligible to receive LIHEAP funds from TCA (504-827-2219) and elderly or disabled customers are eligible for Power to Care funds distributed by the Council on Aging. Also, many customers don’t realize that for every degree their thermostat is set over 68° in the winter adds 3% to their heating bill. One of the Entergy Customer Service representatives told me that she personally spoke to a customer on Monday about her bill and found out she set her thermostat at 75°. That meant a 21% increase in her bill just for heating.

For a very thorough explanation of all the different service options available to you, check the part of Entergy N.O.’s website (www.entergy-neworleans.com) called “Entergy New Orleans, At Your Service” – but here is a shortcut link to that section:

http://entergy-neworleans.com/your_home/service.aspx

It does not matter if you are a customer in Entergy Louisiana, the regulations are basically the same. If you are a Cleco or other utility customer, you can learn a lot from this quick look, and then go to your utility’s website to get the specific numbers or links for customer service.

Cleco link: http://www.cleco.com/site185.php

Entergy Louisiana link: http://www-entergy-louisina.com/contact_Us/ and the same phone # 1-800-Entergy (368-3749

Scroll down about 7 screens (or pages, they are not numbered), to check the paragraphs under the subtitle “Does Entergy Have Programs that Support the Elderly or Disabled?” in the next section about different organizations available to help – usually only one time a year – with utility bills and who is qualified to receive that help. If you are not elderly or disabled, check the last of those paragraphs about VIA-link.

Lastly, check out the information on how your bills are figured and what the different parts of the bill mean. On the 5th page of their website as you scroll down under “Billing Information” to learn about these things and how to monitor your own use of heat and air-conditioning to try to reduce your bills in that way.

Also check the Energy Efficiency How-To page in the Workforce Development section of our website for information on how to reduce your energy use.

For energy saving tips from Entergy, you can go to their ENsight website www.entergy.com/ensight.

 

Part II: Learn the regulations in place for extreme weather conditions and service cutoffs

If you are interested in learning about what weather or other conditions trigger your bill not being able to be cut off, go back to the short cut link:

http://entergy-neworleans.com/your_home/service.aspx

Scroll down to the seventh page (though pages are not numbered to read the information about Payment Options. Go to the second column “What do I do if I have difficulty paying my bill?” The third paragraph does not give the same detail as the actual regulation shown below, but shows that there are certain regulations in place for weather related extremes.

The full details are listed in the actual service regulations agreed upon by the City Council (ENO’s regulator), Entergy N.O., and the intervenors (such as the Alliance) in a case involving service regulations.

The Alliance for Affordable Energy had worked for many years to develop a “Ratepayer’s Bill of Rights” with ENO and the Council, which would include a mediation process for customers who felt they had no way to resolve disputes fairly when they disagreed with the utility’s ruling on some aspect of their service. There needed to be a third party process available to them. We also wanted the public to have bilingual options for inquiring about bills, and policies, and several other types of protections to customers with regard to service and billing, which involves meter reading, etc. The utility needed protections as well – such as ways to enter people’s yards to read the meters.

In 2007, the City Council adopted a new set of service regulations with our support. The full set of regulations can be found on the Entergy N.O. website using that same link:

http://entergy-neworleans.com/your_home/service.aspx, then clicking on -> Service Regulations on the right side of the screen.

Below is the actual regulation everyone agreed to regarding non-cut-offs of your bill due to extreme cold or heat.

It’s on page 25 section 39.

39. Restrictions on Suspension
of Residential Service for Non-Payment. The Company will not suspend residential Service for non-payment under the following conditions: (i) if there is a bona fide dispute regarding such deliverability (see Section 49 “Customer Complaints”); (ii) if the low temperature for that day is forecast to remain below 40 degrees F or for the following night is forecast to be 32 degrees F or lower; (iii) if the high temperature for that day is forecast to be 100 degrees F or higher; (iv) if the National Weather Service has an Excessive Heat Warning2 (or other such term that reflects a Heat Index of 115 degrees F or higher) issued for Orleans Parish, or (v) on a weekend, holiday, or the day before a holiday or Friday after 1:00 PM.

Our thanks to Melanie Hall of ENO.