Why did Entergy New Orleans customer bills skyrocket for December usage? The power provider today told the New Orleans City Council their research shows customers using more power and natural gas is the biggest factor.
"The primary reason for the ... bill increases is customer consumption," the utility's representatives said during a presentation. "Consumption increased 40% for electric and 120% for gas for a typical customer."
Entergy New Orleans said the colder weather was the biggest factor in why people used more power and gas.
Council members called on the company to do a better job publicizing services that allow customers to get alerts when usage spikes.
Utilities Committee Chair Helena Moreno specified, "Text alerts, email alerts."
She called on Entergy to also sound alarms when people start racking up higher costs.
"Proactive measures to alert the media, let anyone know that, 'Hey these usage level could be very high this month.'"
Entergy also had to buy power from outside sources in December because of local plant outages and pointed to a five day longer billing period and an increase in fuel adjustment charges with costs increasing.