Entergy customers could see bill increase
Published 11:17 am Sunday, January 4, 2015
It should be no surprise for residents that the multibillion-dollar industrial projects are going to bring with them some challenges. And one of those could affect how much the 1 million Entergy Corp.’s Louisiana customers pay on their monthly bills.
The Advocate reported that Entergy has to generate more power before the end of 2016 and come up with more by the end of 2019. It’s expected that new power plants will be built, and that each one costs about $1 billion. And that’s where Entergy customers could be affected because they would have to pay for them.
While Entergy has taken some steps to provide more electricity for the state, Phillip May, head of Entergy’s Louisiana operations, said, “Ultimately we’re going to need to build new generation.”
“It has to be new steel in the ground to meet all of this new load,” he said. “We’re on the front end of a pretty steep curve in growth.”
While new plants may be needed to keep up with the industrial expansion projects here and around the state, the question lies in whether there are other ways to come up with the electricity that wouldn’t affect customers’ bills as much.
Some officials don’t support what Entergy wants to do with increasing its power. Jennifer Vosburg, head of Louisiana’s units of NRG Inc., told The Advocate that cogeneration should be considered because it would allow industries to make the electricity they need by loosening regulations.
Casey DeMoss Roberts is head of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a New Orleans-based consumer advocacy group. He said it isn’t fair “that residential and commercial customers should have to foot the bill (for power) that will be needed primarily by the large industrial sector.”
May said that customers won’t see a big change in their monthly rates because Entergy is “adding a lot of new customers.” To come up with the rates, they take the cost of making and distributing electricity and divide that by how many customers use it.
May also said that Entergy has to figure out whether to “maintain the old plant, build a new plant or enter into a contract to buy power.” Some of those contracts are almost done, and Louisiana’s existing plants are about 35 years old on average.
Because it takes three years to build a new power plant, there’s no time to waste. And Louisiana Public Service Commissioners, including Clyde Holloway, said they are keeping a close eye on when a decision will be made.
There are some options to consider before deciding that building new power plants is the best move in bringing more power to meet the demand from these industrial projects. Hopefully, the final move will provide enough power while having the least impact to Entergy customers as possible.
