Customers of Entergy Louisiana, which includes Dixie Inn and some outlying Webster Parish residents, can look forward to a refund on their power bills as the result of a victory by the Louisiana Public Service Commission in its long-running fight to equalize the costs of generation on the Entergy System.
Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell said the typical residential customer is in line for a one-time refund of about $8 on an upcoming bill.
“I want to see customers receive their refunds as soon as possible,” Campbell said. “Bills could remain high in October based on September electricity usage. A one-time refund makes more sense here than spreading the refunds over several months.”
Customers of Entergy Gulf States Louisiana can also expect a refund from the LPSC lawsuit victory. Campbell said the refund on a typical Gulf States residential customer bill will be about $15.
The refunds stem from recalculation of prior-year refunds already awarded to Louisiana Entergy customers by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The LPSC asked FERC to correct flawed refund calculations made by Entergy for 2007, 2008 and 2009.
FERC ordered refunds to ELL of about $18.9 million and to EGSL of about $17.2 million. The Entergy Louisiana refunds must be spread over a larger customer base, which makes the amount per customer smaller than the amount for a Gulf States customer.
The LPSC brought suit against Entergy at FERC over how the company spread the cost of electricity generation among its subsidiary companies operating in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi. The so-called “System Agreement” lawsuit has produced hundreds of millions of dollars in relief to Louisiana customers since 2007.
The current refund brings the total achieved for customers of ELL to more than $350 million. The refunds have been reflected as credits on customer bills in the months of June-December in most years. ELL has not received refunds since 2012.
