Following the storm, three badly damaged segments of a distribution line called the “Lake Line” were never repaired, leaving residents in Lake Fields Island, Lake DeCade, and Grand Pass without electric service.
Their utility, the South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association (SLECA), had made claims that rebuilding the line would cost $140M. On top of that, environmental permitting, mitigation, and right of way procurement is projected to add anywhere from $11.5M to $23M to SLECA’s tab. In September of 2024, SLECA asked the PSC for permission to end service to these residents altogether – making the utility the first in the country to have ever done so – arguing the repairs were too expensive to complete.
That’s despite 90% of restoration costs being covered by FEMA thanks to SLECA’s non-profit cooperative status. SLECA claimed that to generate the remaining funds, they would have to charge all other customers, including nonimpacted SLECA ratepayers, $13-24 per month for the next 30 years. While those costs are high, they are not guaranteed – they were estimates based on the most expensive restoration scenario and were in part driven by the need to replace infrastructure that SLECA prematurely opted to remove. The costs to the 282 families who have been forced to purchase costly generators, costing anywhere from a thousand to tens of thousands of dollars while they wait for SLECA to restore electrical service, are burdensome too.
SLECA is a cooperative utility that serves Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. Martin, and St. Mary Parishes. It is run by a 9-member board of directors headquartered in Houma. SLECA serves 21,367 meters, and 17,000 customers/members. They service 1,500 miles of power lines.
Unlike an investor-owned utility, cooperative utilities are not-for-profit utility companies owned by the people they serve, who are treated as member-owners rather than customers. They are governed by a small group of member-owners, who are elected to the board by other member-owners. Rather than utility profits going to outside shareholders, as is the case for investor-owned utilities, cooperative utility profits are either re-invested back into the company or distributed to their members.
For years, SLECA assured residents that they would restore power, sending them letters in 2021, 2022, and 2023 promising that restoration was on its way. Yet residents claim SLECA removed infrastructure even before the PSC gave them permission to do so and never told residents they were pursuing disconnection. One property owner, whose family has owned a camp in the area since the 1950s, told the Commission that only a small portion of the electrical infrastructure at his property had been damaged in the storm, but SLECA tore it all down. These actions, and the prospect of permanent abandonment, have had a widespread negative impact on property values.
In February, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that SLECA failed to meet their burden of proof of explaining why total abandonment is in the public interest, and also failed to identify affordable alternatives to restoring power or financing as is required by PSC rules. The ALJ even went so far as to call SLECA’s testimony “uncorroborated” and “self-serving.”
Earlier in these proceedings, the affected residents were divided into four groups based on different parts of the Lake Line. In the PSC meeting held on March 18, 2026, the Commission, following the ALJ’s recommendation, granted SLECA’s request to abandon those living in Lake DeCade, or Group 1, on the basis of SLECA meeting the burden of proof to show abandonment of that part of the line is in the public interest. In that meeting, rather than following the ALJ’s recommendation to deny SLECA’s request to abandon service to Groups 2-4, the Commissioners gave SLECA another chance to justify their claims.
Again, the ALJ found that SLECA did not meet their burden and at the September 16, 2026 PSC meeting, the Commission rejected SLECA’s request, directing them to find a way to provide the remaining residents power.
Sara Boudreaux, a resident of Lake Fields and a leader in the fight to restore service to the Lake Line, told the Commission, “[n]ow that abandonment has been denied, I respectfully ask this Commission to also determine what happens next. Give SLECA firm, short timelines to do what this Commission requires. Please do not send Lake Fields home today with another open-ended process and no end in sight.”
Boudreaux added, “[t]his decision matters beyond Lake Fields. A utility cannot make the decision first, conduct the required analysis later, make limited attempts to exhaust reasonable alternatives, and then use the absence of their restoration plan as the reason abandonment would be granted.”
This is why the Commission must work to establish protections for Louisiana residents so that no utility can ever treat their ratepayers like SLECA did. Specifically, rules are needed to define whether and how utilities are required to notify customers and seek the approval of the PSC about their intent to abandon electrical service. Without these rules, many more Louisianans could face arbitrary disconnections, which can have serious to fatal consequences.
Following the Commission’s decision, SLECA must now devise a plan for restoring power to residents. One option is to install solar and backup batteries to properties, an alternative that likely costs far less than rebuilding the original infrastructure. In the meantime, AAE applauds the Commission for standing with residents, and rejecting the notion that power is not a fundamental right.
