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NEW ORLEANS — City councilwoman Helena Moreno led a special meeting with Entergy leaders on Tuesday morning to discuss the spike in electric bills. Entergy says the increase in usage is causing higher rates. They also say the primary reason for the January bill increase is customer consumption. Consumption increased 40% for electric and 120% for gas for a typical customer.


“Are you all reaching out to the top 1,000 residential customers who have really high usage to see if they potentially need energy-smart assessments?” asked Moreno. 

Last week, the CEO of Entergy New Orleans, David Ellis offered ideas about lowering electricity costs. 


“Like providing you with smart thermostats, making recommendations on where you should be setting your thermostat to optimally drive out unnecessary costs,” said Ellis. 

Entergy says also they’re also using all sources of technology to connect to customers.


“We have some information for customers to notify them through My Entergy and I do think that there is more that we could do to provide information to customers about how to utilize some of these features,” an Entergy employee said.