Entergy Mississippi Customers’ Rates to Drop Well Below High Rates of Summer
Contact:
Mara Hartmann
601-969-2520 (office)
601-594-9042 (cell)
mhartma@entergy.com
Utility files fuel adjustment for first quarter of 2009
Customers of Entergy Mississippi, Inc. will likely soon see electric rates that are significantly lower than the high bills of summer 2008. That’s due to a continued decline in natural gas prices.
The utility has filed for a first quarter fuel adjustment that, if allowed to go into effect by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, would lower typical residential bills about 14 percent beginning January 1. This would effectively decrease those same bills nearly 33 percent from July and August 2008 when a spike in natural gas prices nationwide resulted in a 28 percent increase in customers’ bills.
Based on this proposed adjustment, typical residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month will pay about $89 compared to July and August when the same amount cost nearly $133.
“This is good news for our customers and our company, and we’re hopeful this trend will continue but we’re also cautiously optimistic,” said Haley Fisackerly, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Mississippi, Inc. “We are still in a national energy crisis, natural gas prices are still too high and we are still working hard to find solutions that will benefit our customers. This is not a problem that will be solved overnight.”
After skyrocketing more than 120 percent since mid 2007, natural gas prices began falling in late July. Entergy Mississippi filed for an unprecedented mid-quarter adjustment that resulted in a 9.6 percent reduction in customers’ September bills. That was followed by another 9 percent drop when the utility filed for the final quarter of 2008.
Currently, natural gas prices are still significantly higher than in 2007 and in this volatile market could rise again creating a negative impact on future customer bills. While Entergy Mississippi uses a diverse mix of fuel to generate electricity at the lowest reasonable cost, natural gas is the utility’s largest fuel source.
Entergy Mississippi makes a routine quarterly fuel filing with the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff and the MPSC to recover costs of fuel used to provide electric service to customers. The staff reviews the costs and makes recommendations to the MPSC which can adjust the fuel component of customer rates accordingly. Both the staff and commission have 45 days prior to the start of the affected quarter to review the filing and make any changes before it goes into effect. By law, the utility makes no profit on fuel charges.
Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides electricity to more than 433,000 customers in 45 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.6 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
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Entergy Mississippi’s online address is www.entergy-mississippi.com.