January Highlights & Key Takeaways at the Public Service Commission

01.22.2025

Consumer Protection

Utility Regulation

Louisiana Public Service Commission

Entergy Louisiana

Cleco

SWEPCO

Cooperative Utilities

Renewable Energy

Energy Efficiency

Bills & Economics

Transmission

Reliability & Resilience

Dirty Energy

A New Commissioner

We started off 2025 with a new public service commissioner, Commissioner Jean-Paul Coussan. Commissioner Coussan represents District 2, which includes portions of the Capitol City region and swaths of the coast. The Alliance looks forward to working alongside Commissioner Coussan to support the needs of Louisiana residents.

2025 Positions

Commissioner Mike Francis was elected to be the 2025 chair, supported by Commissioner Davante Lewis in the role of vice chair. Commissioner Eric Skrmetta will represent Louisiana in transmission matters in both the Organization of MISO States (OMS), which leads regional transmission work, and in the Entergy Regional State Committee (ERSC), which provides input on Entergy’s transmission system. Commissioner Francis will represent Louisiana at the Southern Power Pool (SPP), another regional transmission organization that includes a portion of North Louisiana.

Issues We’re Following

The Southern Spirit line, a transmission line that would support renewable energy from Texas to Mississippi, is slated to move forward after a petition to rehear a decision supporting the line was pulled.

Entergy Louisiana (ELL) is requesting emergency rate recovery from Hurricane Francine that would cost residents about 85 cents per 1000 kWh used. At the last B&E, the Commission voted to hire a consultant to vet ELL’s request. Historically utilities have been allowed to charge customers to recover all prudent costs related to storms. The docket will consider whether the expenses were prudent or not. This storm recovery docket will be somewhat different from the larger storm costs in recent years in that this will not use securitization as a mechanism to reduce total customer costs.

The Commission’s next B&E meeting is on February 10 at 9am in Baton Rouge.

Tell Us Something We Don’t Know

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a report this month detailing Louisiana’s electric profile, the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s role in regulating our electric utilities, and the challenges facing the electric grid and LPSC.

The main takeaway: Our electricity bills cost more even though our electricity is cheaper!

Read a Summary of the Report

Key Findings

We use a lot of electricity – Louisiana has one of the highest per capita electricity consumption rates in the nation and residents are feeling the pressure on their wallets. In 2023, natural gas accounted for 72.1% of the net generation by electric utilities in Louisiana.
Our electricity is unreliable – Grid reliability in Louisiana fell short of the national average and worsened between 2013 and 2023. The number of outages in Louisiana,, increased by 14.3%, from 1.4 outages in 2013 to 1.6 outages in 2023 – and that doesn’t even include Major Event Days like Hurricane Francine.
Our grid is at risk from extreme weather – Louisiana experienced 47 weather disaster events where overall costs reached more than $1 billion between January 2014 and May 2024.
We need to invest in systemwide upgrades – The U.S. Department of Energy identified the Delta Region as an area that would benefit from transmission expansion to increase grid resilience and reliability, alleviate congestion, and meet future energy needs.
Low-income residents bear the greatest burden – Historically, utilities in Louisiana could charge consumers a 5% penalty for late payment of utility bills, which is among the highest in the nation. This is a long standing issue The Alliance has been urging regulators to address. The good news is that as part of a settlement reached last year Cleco agreed to lower late fees from 5% to 2.5%, and Entergy Louisiana’s late fees have been lowered from 5% to 1%.
The LPSC is understaffed and underfunded – According to the LPSC, auditor and attorney positions are hard to recruit and hire. Staff in these positions often leave the agency to work in the private sector that offers work from home options and higher salaries.

Last year, the LPSC took action to help Louisiana consumers reduce their electricity consumption and decrease their utility bills by taking the energy efficiency programs out of the hands of the utility companies. Now, an independent third-party is in charge of designing and implementing these programs that help residents save money. But there’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure residents are getting the most out of these programs.

The Alliance is committed to working with commissioners, industry professionals and residents to make sure the energy efficiency programs that are currently being rolled out are effective, efficient, and accessible to the people who need it most.

Another way to impact people’s bottom line is to use cheaper energy sources. Commissioners can mandate utility companies source their electricity from renewable sources. If the LPSC is serious about diversifying energy sources, Commissioners should consider options like community solar.

Download the Full Report