Y'all, I need some help with an Entergy Louisiana mess. My client in Shreveport got a 16-day billing period in December instead of the usual 30 days, then a 44-day period in January. The December bill shows credits for unused demand but January has penalties for exceeding contract demand - but it's the same usage just spread differently! Rate schedule LGS-3 clearly states proration formulas but Entergy isn't following them. Anyone familiar with Louisiana PSC rules on billing period variations?
Short billing period nightmare with Entergy Louisiana
Brenda, I deal with Entergy all the time here in Memphis through MLGW wholesale. That sounds like they're not properly prorating the contract demand threshold. For a 16-day period, the contract demand should be multiplied by 16/30, and for 44 days it should be 44/30. If they're using the full monthly contract amount for both periods, that's definitely wrong. The Louisiana PSC has specific rules about this in their General Order.
Bobby's absolutely right about the proration requirements. I've seen similar issues with TVA billing here in Memphis. The key is that ALL demand-related charges should be prorated consistently - contract demand, billing demand calculation, and any penalty calculations. If they prorated one but not the others, you've got a legitimate complaint. Document the specific tariff sections they violated and file with the Louisiana PSC.
I had a similar case with AEP Ohio a few years back. The problem was they were using monthly contract demand for penalty calculations even in short billing periods. Randy's right about documenting the tariff violations. Also check if they applied the correct billing determinant - some utilities will use the higher of actual demand or prorated contract demand, others use different formulas. The devil is in the details.
Thanks everyone. I pulled the LGS-3 tariff and you're all spot on. Section 4.2 clearly states that billing demand for penalty calculations should be the greater of actual demand or contract demand multiplied by the billing period factor. They used full monthly contract demand in both periods. I'm documenting everything and will file with LPSC if Entergy doesn't fix it voluntarily.
Brenda, also double-check their power factor calculations if your client has any. Pacific Power here in Oregon sometimes forgets to prorate the power factor penalty thresholds too. It's usually a smaller dollar amount but still wrong. These irregular billing periods create so many opportunities for calculation errors.
Duane makes a good point about power factor. I've seen similar issues with Basin Electric up here in North Dakota. The automated billing systems often have bugs when dealing with non-standard billing periods. The programmers set them up for 30-day cycles and don't account for all the edge cases. That's why manual review is so important on these irregular periods.
Tim hits on a crucial point - most billing system errors come from inadequate programming for edge cases. I always recommend clients flag any billing period under 25 days or over 35 days for manual review. The savings from catching these errors usually pays for the audit time several times over.
Randy, that's excellent advice about the 25-35 day rule. I'm going to start using that with my Pensacola clients. Gulf Power has been pretty good about billing periods but it's worth checking. Brenda, how did your case turn out with Entergy? Did they fix the calculation errors?
Nadine, I called Entergy's commercial billing department and they acknowledged the error within two days. Turns out their billing system had a software bug that wasn't applying proration factors to contract demand penalty calculations. They're issuing a credit of $2,847 and supposedly fixing the bug system-wide. Pretty painless once I had the documentation lined up.
That's a great outcome, Brenda. And if their system was calculating it wrong for your client, it was probably wrong for lots of others too. These utilities really need to do better quality control on their billing systems. Glad you got it resolved quickly.
Excellent work Brenda. Cases like this are exactly why our profession exists. One billing system bug caught by a sharp auditor probably saved Entergy customers thousands of dollars in incorrect charges. This is the kind of win we should all be proud of.