Orleans News

Audit: Latest hurricanes price Louisiana utility restoration $1.5B in new debt


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In response to a current audit, the Louisiana Utilities Restoration Company added $1.5 billion in new debt to assist utilities restore electrical energy service after 4 hurricanes and a winter storm.

The report by Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack’s workplace discovered that that the state-owned nonprofit company needed to improve each its debt and the storm restoration prices it levies to utilities to pay for these obligations. This included $1.5 billion to cowl repairs to the electrical energy grid from hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida and a winter storm in February 2021.

The company additionally added $209 million in debt to assist replenish its storm restoration reserves.

In response to the audit, the company collected within the fiscal yr that ends on June 30 almost $355.6 million in system restoration prices from Entergy Louisiana, $11.7 million from Entergy Gulf States Louisiana and $8.34 million from Entergy New Orleans.

The audit additionally discovered that the company’s present liabilities elevated by 128%, rising by $195 million from $152 million in fiscal 2022 to $347.2 million in fiscal 2003.

Its noncurrent liabilities additionally rose by 48.4%, rising from $3.22 billion to $4.7 billion, with each will increase on account of elevated liabilities.

In fiscal 2023, the company paid $96 million in curiosity and $119.9 million in principal on one set of system restoration bonds, whereas paying $1 million in curiosity and $17.7 million in principal for one more.

Louisiana has been hit laborious by a spherical of storms lately. Hurricane Laura made landfall in Cameron Parish close to Lake Charles on Aug. 27, 2020, as a robust Class 4 storm, adopted by Class 2 Hurricane Delta simply six weeks later and 15 miles east of the place Laura made landfall.

On Oct. 28, 2020, Hurricane Zeta made landfall close to Cocodrie as a Class 3 storm that handed over New Orleans.

On Aug. 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida was Class 4 when it struck Port Fourchon, the important thing provide middle for the state’s offshore oil and pure fuel business. This date was the sixteenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in 2005 as a Class 4 storm.

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