The PSC staff, Entergy, the attorney general’s office and other parties announced today a settlement of a pending Entergy rate increase request.
Though overall rates still will increase, various provisions in the deal — and, not incidentally, the currently relatively depressed price of natural gas, a generator fuel — will mean a decrease in residential rates this summer, to about $89 in July for a customer who paid $110 in the same month a year ago.
Here’s the full text of the deal, from the PSC.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in a conference call to reporters that the $223 million rate increase requested by Entergy Arkansas will be cut by about $150 million. McDaniel said all parties involved in the rate increase case had agreed to the terms. Overall rates will increase by $73.8 million. The agreement must now be approved by the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
“Entergy went to the PSC and said they needed a rate increase,” McDaniel said. “We got to work to try to analyze it to see how much of that was fair and how much was beyond justification.”
Entergy was looking for a rate increase that would reflect their spending on infrastructure. The company is also looking to update their facilities, like the coal plant in White Bluff.