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Overbilled Entergy customers still awaiting an unpredictable refund

1 year 10 months 3 weeks ago Sunday, January 08 2023 Jan 8, 2023 January 08, 2023 10:42 PM January 08, 2023 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - After overbilling customers for years, a ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory system is calling for a refund for Entergy customers across Louisiana.

When it'll come is something Entergy says they aren't sure of. In the meantime, residents across Baton Rouge are still dealing with incredibly high Entergy bills. 

"It's very disappointing," long-time Baton Rouge resident Eugene Cooke said. 

Cooke tallied up all his Entergy bills and his findings left him in a state of shock, wondering why the rise in prices are so high. 

"Look at June of last year to June this year and August last year to August this year, Cooke said.

His data indicates a near 30 percent increase during that time frame, and it didn't stop there. 

"You can see in August, my cost would have been $709 as the previous August in 2021, it was $292."

Entergy says the three leading reasons for the startling rise in bills derives from natural gas prices, energy usage, and storm restoration fees. Cooke's convinced there's more to his high energy bills. 

"To go from $200 to $400, that's a pretty significant bump in the cost of energy when I know from Entergy's reports that I've got here, my usage has remained the same the last two years."

The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission found that Entergy's subsidiary, System Energy Resources, Inc. had been overbilling customers for over two decades.

It came as a result of accounting problems at the Grand Gulf facility in Mississippi. 

"$200 a month, that's $2,400 a year," Cooke said.

Federal Regulators have now ordered that Entergy pay direct refunds to Entergy Louisiana, New Orleans and Arkansas customers.

The announcement came late last month and says Entergy Louisiana customers are being refunded $160 million dollars. Entergy New Orleans customers are supposed to get $190 million.

What each customer will get and when they'll get the refunds still isn't set in stone.

The refunds are expected to be detailed in a compliance report released by SERI. When they'll be submitted, Entergy says, still isn't known. Cooke says he hopes that refund will come soon, given the dramatic rise he's dealt with in energy prices.  

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