BATON ROUGE – In December 2024, Entergy requested to add a new storm fee to customers’ bills to help recover costs the utility provider spent on repairs after Hurricane Francine. The Public Service Commission (PSC) is in the process of reviewing the company’s request and has hired a consultant to look into the matter.
Entergy is requesting to bill customers more than $182 million in a storm fee to recover what it spent after Francine, which hit Louisiana in September 2024.
PSC Intergovernmental Policy & Communications Director Colby Cook said that retaining a consultant to look into storm-related matters is normal for the agency. Recently, the PSC voted to retain Henderson Ridge Consulting to assist the agency in reviewing Entergy’s request, he said.
Right now, Henderson Ridge Consulting is in the process of reviewing Entergy’s request.
Request to the Commission
In its request to the Public Service Commission (received by the agency on Dec. 30, 2024), Entergy says it lost fewer than 1,000 distribution poles and “experienced minimal impacts to its transmission system” during Hurricane Francine.
Some of this is due to pre-storm measures taken, the company said. Cook said that the PSC requires all utility providers to have a vegetation plan that includes tree trimming and maintenance of the lines.
In addition, the utility used 8,000 crew members in its storm response and was able to restore power to 90% of customers within three days and 100% within six days.
To recover its costs, Entergy is asking permission to bill $182 million to customers beginning with the March 2025 billing cycle.
The storm fee would vary for each customer and be based on their monthly electricity usage. Entergy estimates it would amount to roughly $1.10 per month for an average home that uses 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity or $0.80 for a home that uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours.
Cook said all public utilities have a legal right to recover “prudently incurred costs” from customers.
“It’s the Commission’s job to ensure that the costs incurred were in fact prudently incurred and that the recovery is as least onerous on the customer as possible,” he added.
This also includes costs associated with insurance.
After multiple strong hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in the 1990s and early 2000s, insurance on electric infrastructure became cost prohibitive or completely unavailable, however, Cook said. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, storm recovery filings brought to light this lack of coverage throughout the entire Gulf Coast.
As with other utility companies, all costs to repair any portion of their system is passed on to customers system-wide, Cook explained. Even parishes not directly affected by Francine would still be subject to the fee, if approved.
“A public utility’s cost is allocated on a system-wide, or customer-wide basis. Specific costs cannot be allocated to a subset of customers, such as those only in affected parishes,” he said.
Multiple parishes were not approved for aid under former President Joe Biden’s disaster declaration following Hurricane Francine, including East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston, Tangipahoa, among several others.
Tangipahoa was listed by Entergy as one of the parishes “most impacted” by Francine in its service area.
According to Entergy Louisiana spokesman Brandon Scardigli, the company has enough money in its storm escrow account to fund all of the Francine restoration costs, but using it exclusively for Francine would deplete its balance. This would leave the company exposed and underprepared for future storms, he said.
Cook said that due to pending litigation, the commission cannot weigh in on whether the company should utilize its storm escrow account for these costs.
In 2024, the PSC approved Entergy’s request for a resiliency plan (Docket U-36625). The resilience plan authorizes Entergy to upgrade certain identified equipment to reduce storm damage and restoration time after storms, Cook said.
When the plan was approved, the PSC also approved set penalties should these higher standards fail, he added.
Charges adding up
At this time, Entergy customers are still paying a storm fee for six other storms, including Hurricane Isaac (2012); Laura, Delta and Zeta (2020); Winter Storm Uri and Hurricane Ida (2021).
According to an article by the Louisiana Illuminator, those charges add up to roughly $20 per month for a home that uses 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
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