Entergy ranks last in the South in new customer survey. See what's behind the results. - NOLA.com

Entergy ranks last in South in new JD Power customer survey | Business News | nola.com

Entergy customers across Louisiana have faced sharply higher electricity bills and repeated outages in recent years, often following devastating storms. Now, a new survey that ranked the utility's two local subsidiaries as the worst in the South offers a stark sign of the depth of customer discontent.

Entergy Louisiana, which serves over 1.3 million customers across the state, came in last among large utilities in the South in the survey conducted by data analytics firm J.D. Power, which gauged customer sentiment on things like the price of electricity, reliability, communications and other metrics. Entergy New Orleans, the subsidiary that provides service within Orleans Parish to some 200,000-plus customers, ranked last among smaller utilities for the third straight year.

The survey of customers of 144 utilities across the U.S. is the latest indication of how upset customers of Entergy have become in recent years, a situation that has pushed regulators to more heavily scrutinize the company and prompted plans to boost the power grid's reliability.

Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis, a Democrat who unseated a longtime incumbent last year on a campaign of reform, said Wednesday the latest survey results are a “problem.”

“The people of Louisiana are not satisfied with the services they receive,” Lewis wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.“I’m working to improve that.”

Entergy spokesperson Brandon Scardigli said the company provides power to some of the most “extreme-weather challenged areas of the country.”

“Outages from increasingly strong storms in our area as well as high usage from record-setting excessive heat events has certainly been a hardship for our customers as exhibited by our collective scores in recent satisfaction surveys,” Scardigli said in an email. “While we are disappointed in the survey’s findings, we understand where we need to improve and we know how we need to accomplish becoming a better partner for our customers.”

He also pointed to Entergy’s proposed plans to spend billions on a decade-long resilience plan that the firm says would improve reliability metrics

The PSC and New Orleans City Council have the power to approve or reject the plans, which have largely been met with skepticism over the increased costs to customers.

How the rankings worked

In the J.D. Power survey, Entergy ranked particularly bad compared to its peers on the price of electricity and reliability.

Customers reported their bills were upwards of $240 a month on average, compared to $200 a month for the region as a whole, according to Ramah Vaughn, director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power. Customers of some utilities in Florida and the Carolinas reported monthly bills closer to $150.

Entergy also scored among the worst in the nation on questions about whether customers were aware of steps the utility was taking to improve or maintain infrastructure.

“One of their largest problems is customers do not see the correlation between rates and maintaining infrastructure,” Vaughn said. “That combined with high bills causes an issue.”

Entergy scored higher on communications and community involvement, like sponsorships and donations, Vaughn said.

Vaughn noted that customers across the country have reported worsening scores on price. That could become a growing issue for Entergy as it seeks to implement its resilience plans, which would see billions spent on stronger utility poles and other parts of its distribution network. Entergy proposes paying for the projects by adding charges to customers’ bills; key City Council leaders say that’s a nonstarter in New Orleans and that Entergy needs to find federal funds and other sources of revenue to fund improvements.

The JD Power results come from 104,801 online interviews. The firm asked questions across six factors including power quality and reliability, price, billing and payment and others. Utilities are ranked on a 1,000-point scale.

Data from the Public Service Commission shows Entergy Louisiana failed to meet the minimum standards for outages in 2018, 2019 and 2022, prompting a fine from the PSC.

Entergy New Orleans has pointed to data showing its reliability metrics improved from 2017 to 2022. Both utilities are measured by industry standards that calculate the frequency and duration of outages.

Some advocates are pushing for the City Council to beef up its standards for Entergy New Orleans’ reliability by including major events like hurricanes, which are currently excluded from the calculations.