Advocates Call for Entergy Audit After “Cascade of Failures”

NEW ORLEANS – Entergy, the utility company serving New Orleans, has been in the news for the wrong reasons lately.

Utility regulators recently filed a federal complaint seeking more than $1 billion in customers refunds after, the complaint says, Entergy wrongfully charged them for expenses at the problematic Grand Gulf nuclear power station.

The company also recently admitted to cutting three times as much electricity as it needed to during emergency winter weather blackouts in late February.

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And there’s a front-page story this week about customers frustrated with recent spikes in their bills.

Now, several groups are calling on New Orleans City Councilmembers to mandate that Entergy “undergo an independent management audit to identify cost-savings and recommend corrective action for improved service.”

“Over and over again Entergy messes up and the Council holds a meeting, but there is no solution. It feels like we’re in the movie Groundhog Day. We don’t want to repeat this at the Council meeting tomorrow,” said Dawn Hebert, a New Orleans East resident and member of Energy Future New Orleans.

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In a letter to City Councilmembers, the group said that months of “sky-high bills and an unannounced blackout by Entergy on a freezing Mardi Gras night are among the cascade of Entergy failures”

“We are urging regulation by the Council that requires an independent management audit of Entergy New Orleans from the top to the bottom of the corporation,” said Logan Burke of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

The groups’ letter cites the precedent of an independent management audit forced on Hawaii’s utility that identified $20M in cost savings and service improvements.

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An Entergy Corporation spokesperson responded to the Grand Gulf controversy with the following statement:

“We are investing in our Grand Gulf facility to position it for many years of safe, secure and reliable operations. In 2020, we invested in significant upgrades, replacing the plant’s turbine control system to extend the life and efficiency of the facility. In late 2020, the plant experienced operational issues related to that upgrade, including unplanned shutdowns and time spent off the grid. We’ve worked to identify the related issues, implemented a maintenance outage and conducted additional training for our team. The team operated Grand Gulf at 100 percent power throughout the recent unprecedented winter storms, providing much needed carbon-free electricity to customers. The plant boasts more than 860 highly trained professionals who are committed to continuous improvement and becoming the premier nuclear fleet. Entergy remains committed to Grand Gulf for the long term as part of its carbon-free portfolio.”

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