Utility regulators in Arkansas recently settled their legal battle with Entergy over mismanagement and tax issues at the Grand Gulf nuclear plant, but Louisiana regulators are poised to continue the fight to get refunds they say their customers deserve.
The nuclear plant, which is located in Port Gibson, Miss., supplies power to customers in Louisiana and other states. It has been the subject of allegations of mismanagement and tax violations, prompting utility regulators to call on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to order hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates.
Late last month, the Arkansas Public Service Commission said it had agreed to a settlement with Entergy and System Energy Resources Inc., which distributes energy from the nuclear plant to Entergy and its subsidiaries. The settlement will allow $142 million to be reimbursed to utility customers to resolve the commission’s complaints.
In a similar settlement last year, Mississippi regulators resolved their arguments with Entergy and SERI over nuclear power plant issues by agreeing to a $300 million settlement.
But the Louisiana Public Service Commission is continuing with its legal fight by seeking sanctions against Entergy over the taxation and alleged mismanagement and accounting issues, according to a statement released earlier this year. The commission contends that Entergy Louisiana customers in New Orleans are owed more than $180 million in refunds, while other utility customers in the state are owed at least $145 million.
A FERC order issued in August confirms that SERI should refund more than $550 million to customers in Louisiana, according to the commission, but Entergy disputes that interpretation of the order.
“The ruling is clear that Louisianans are owed a refund,” Commission Davante Lewis said in a prepared statement in August. “It’s time for Entergy Corp. to stop these legal challenges and comply with the order to refund what is owed to our people.”
Entergy, however, said the FERC order on tax positions taken by SERI denied Louisiana regulators’ request for the company to pay new refunds to Louisiana customers.
David Freese, an Entergy Louisiana spokesman, said the company continues to be willing to have settlement talks with the state’s utility commission.
“Entergy is always open to conversations with its respective regulators,” Freese said in an email to the Louisiana Record.
He pointed to Entergy’s third-quarter 2023 earnings report showing progress on a number of financial fronts.
“The quarter’s results keep us firmly on track to achieve our commitments, and we made important regulatory progress including settlements that reduce risk and uncertainty going forward,” Entergy’s chairman and CEO, Drew Marsh, said in the earnings statement.
The report mentioned the settlement with Arkansas regulators as a positive development.
“SERI reached a settlement in principle with the (Arkansas Public Service Commission) to resolve all of the APSC’s complaints against SERI,” the report states. “The settlement is subject to FERC approval.”
The Louisiana commission declined to provide additional comment on its legal actions against SERI and Entergy. But legal filings indicate that the panel is calling on FERC to fine Entergy $1 million per day for not paying out refunds to Louisiana customers.
A statement from Arkansas regulators late last month said the proposed settlement offered by Entergy is preferable to protracted litigation.
““This settlement resolves costly litigation and will result in meaningful benefits for customers,” the statement says. “Once the settlement is approved by FERC, Entergy Arkansas will make a filing at the APSC to calculate the amount customers will receive on their bill and subsequently issue refunds.”