Confused about high electricity bills? Entergy gives some answers

Residents have been stumped on high electricity bills despite not having power because of Hurricane Ida’s wrath. We’ve seen spikes after natural disasters, such as last year’s freeze, but what’s going on? The Times reached out to some resources and here’s what we found out.

The Times reached out to Entergy and Terrebonne Consolidated Government, however, Entergy is the only one to respond with full answers so far. According to Entergy, the recent increases in utility costs across the country, including Louisiana, are largely driven by the rising natural gas prices. Many factors affect a customer’s bill, including the cost to build and maintain generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, energy usage, fuel adjustments, and storm restoration charges. Some of these items are driven directly by the consumer, such as the amount of power used, but others are driven directly by market values, such as the price of natural gas. As with gasoline prices at the pump, the cost of natural gas used to generate electricity has increased significantly in the last 12 months (wholesale natural gas price doubled in the last 12 months). As required by the LPSC rules, Entergy said Entergy Louisiana passes the cost of fuel on to customers without any mark-up or profit.

Following Hurricane Ida, some customers are seeing bills that may be higher than expected. Depending on the billing cycle, customers may now be receiving bills from August that includes usage up until the storm. This was also the only reason TPCG gave for the recent spikes in their billings.

Entergy said there can be several factors that would make a bill higher. High temperatures are the main culprit, particularly in southeast Louisiana during the summer months. They said if a customer was flooded and is using dehumidifiers, fans, and air conditioning to dry out their house, then usage will also go up. Another thing Entergy noted is if they have torn-out insulation, there is little to block the heat, so the air conditioning will be running even harder to keep the house at the temperature set on the thermostat. If customers did not receive their bill because it could not be delivered due to storm damage, or if they didn’t pay their bill because they were unable to during the recovery efforts, the most recent bill will reflect multiple months of usage, rather than just one. In some cases, zero usage was estimated for customers assumed to be without power because of the hurricane. If they actually did have power, their next bill reflected that reconciliation, and the customer would see an increase.

“We pride ourselves on being a responsible community partner, and we never want to see our customers struggle to pay their bills,” Entergy said in a statement to the Times, “We offer a wide variety of payment options and savings tips that can be found at entergy.com/billhelp and we encourage anyone who is struggling to make payments to call us immediately at 1-800-ENTERGY so we can work together to find a solution that works best for their individual needs.”