Louisiana Utility Customers Will Pay a ‘Storm Restoration Charge’

If you add up all of the time my power was out this year due to the ridiculous 2020 Hurricane season, it might add up to a whole day.  I have several friends that were not as lucky, and the entirety of St. Charles is on the other end of that spectrum.  It looks like regardless of the amount of destruction we saw personally, we'll all be chipping in to pay for it (at least the restoration of electrical service) together.

So far this year, Louisiana has been hit with 6 major hurricanes.  Cristobal, Marco, Laura, Sally, Beta and Delta have all come ashore in the Sportsman's Paradise - each causing various amounts of damage.  In each and every case, a significant number of residents lost electrical power.  While crews from across the country worked around the clock to restore that power as quickly as possible, it wasn't cheap.

Now, that cost could be passed along to us.  According to the report from WBRZ, the company will start tacking on a "Storm Restoration Charge" onto the bill of every customer in Louisiana - regardless of whether or not that customer's power was affected by the storm.  That means that even if you live in an area that wasn't in the path of the storm and you didn't lose power, you still have to pay.

This is a long-standing policy that has been employed in years past to reimburse the power company after an enormous expenditure on their part to restore power.  Unlike years past, however, this charge will be bit more noticeable.

The restoration charge applied to customers bills in the aftermath of Katrina was a few dollars extra a month, but according to Louisiana Public Service Commission District 2 Commissioner Dr. Craig Greene - Entergy customers should expect it to be significantly more due to the overwhelming 2020 storm season.

Officials say that these charges may not appear on your bill for months or even a year from now, but they may be applied for up to 10 years.