A $412.6 million bill for restoring power service to 1 million customers of Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana following hurricanes Gustav and Ike last September has been presented to state utility regulators.
The Public Service Commission will decide how much bills will rise as the result of the storms, which heavily damaged power systems for the two units of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp.
Although storm reserve funds established after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 have kicked in $229.5 million, total restoration costs to the two systems stand at $632.2 million, Entergy said Wednesday.
If the PSC approves the full amount, Entergy Gulf States Louisiana’s residential customers would see a surcharge of $1.10 to $1.23 per 1,000 kilowatt hours, while Entergy Louisiana’s customers would pay $1.51 to $1.67 per 1,000 kilowatt hours, according to the filing.
The two utilities also want to restore depleted storm reserve funds and build them to $90 million for Entergy Gulf States Louisiana and $200 million for Entergy Louisiana with another surcharge described as less than $2.00 per 1,000 kilowatt hours.
The final figures will depend upon how much the PSC allows the utilities to recover, how the costs are allocated among commercial, industrial and residential users and how the PSC decides to allow the costs to be recovered. The traditional method is to spread out the cost over several years on customers’ bills, but revenue bonds backed by surcharges were used to pay costs from Katrina and Rita to lower interest costs covered by consumers.
Customers of the two Entergy units already are paying about $1 billion over 10 years as the result of Katrina and Rita.
Under the law, power companies are entitled to recover any storm restoration costs determined by the PSC to have been incurred properly. That process could be lengthy.
Through February, Entergy said it had spent $236.3 million to restore Entergy Gulf States Louisiana — with $85.5 million of that covered by the storm reserve — and $395.9 million to restore Entergy Louisiana — with $134 million of that covered by the reserve. That leaves $261.9 million in uncovered costs for Entergy Louisiana and $150.7 million for Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, the utilities said.—-Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]