BATON ROUGE - It's July 2022 in Louisiana. It is hot, gas prices are skyrocketing, and so are energy bills.

"You're going to be running fans. You're going to be dimming lights. You're going to be closing shades," said Baton Rouge resident Melonie Milton, speaking about last year.

Like pretty much all Entergy customers last year, Milton was stunned at the numbers on her monthly statement.

"Almost double in price."

After the week of record temps we've had, she's anticipating a similar situation this year.

"My bill jumped about $50 this past month and I expect it to be at least $100 more than what it was."

However, although it is hotter this summer, according to Entergy, some things are different this year.

"While we don't expect the extreme spike that we had last year, we do expect to see some fluctuation in utility bills based on electricity usage," spokesperson David Freese said.

The most important being the price of natural gas--which was a big factor in those inflated 2022 bills. Compared to last summer, the price has gone down more than 60 percent.

"Although we don't anticipate the high natural gas prices, because again, they've come down significantly from this time last year, we do expect that usage will be a little higher which is typical of the summer time."

Usage is still the main factor in utility bills. As usual, Entergy suggests keeping your thermostats to 78 degrees to save money.

"We do realize that not everybody is going to be comfortable with their home at 78 degrees. However, any degree below 78 will potentially raise your bill by about 3 percent. So if you've gone from 78 to 75, you've potentially raised your utility bill by about 9 percent."

Another factor that drove bills up last year was new hurricane fees. Those will remain on your current bills for the next 15 years.