New Orleans City Council approves an increase in electric & gas revenues for Entergy New Orleans

At the New Orleans City Council's September 7th Regular Meeting Councilmembers unanimously approved Resolution No. R-23-423 authorizing "an agreement in principle related to the 2023 electric and gas formula rate plan (FRP) filings" in Docket UD-18-07. A Formula Rate Plan (FRP) is a ratemaking method in which the utility adjusts its base rates outside of a general rate case.  The approved agreement grants Entergy New Orleans an increase of $1.65M in electric revenues and $6.9M in methane revenues. 

While this revenue will be collected through a charge on customers bills, electric customers will not experience an increase in their bills because incoming bill credits from a settlement in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) docket EL 18-152 (related to the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station) will offset these costs. The average gas customer will see an increase of $4.93 on their monthly bill. ​

​For more information on Entergy's FRP application, check out our previous blog post, here.

​What are The Alliance's thoughts on the Council's approval of Entergy New Orleans' application? Read the comments of our New Orleans Policy Director, Jesse George, below: 

Today’s increase of $1.65M in electric revenues and $6.9M in methane revenues for Entergy New Orleans is an insult to struggling New Orleans ratepayers who already endure one of the highest energy burdens in the nation, while routinely experiencing poor service, with weekly fair weather outages during the hottest months of the year, and indeed, in human history. When compounded with Entergy’s pending applications for $179M in Hurricane Ida costs and $1B in storm hardening costs, New Orleanians might well ask what the Council is doing to alleviate their burdens.

​In the last two weeks, the news we have heard from Entergy is that they refuse to abide by a twice-confirmed order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to refund ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars and have boasted about a $2M “donation” to the Super Bowl. So we ask, do they really need this rate increase? We are still waiting for the Council to permanently end residential disconnections, to implement a citywide arrearage management program, to fix the broken bill dispute process, and to improve our energy efficiency programming, community solar rules, and renewable portfolio standard. While every Entergy request for a rate increase is seemingly approved – even if mitigated – efforts to assist ratepayers drag on for months or years. We implore you to act with urgency to address this growing crisis.
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