Louisiana Sells Bonds to Repay Power Company for Isaac Repairs

State regulators said bonds have been sold to raise money to repay Entergy Corp. for repairs after Hurricane Isaac.

The slow-moving hurricane caused flooding throughout south Louisiana when it struck in August 2012.

The Advocate reported that about 787,000 Entergy customers in Louisiana, mostly in the New Orleans area, reported outages.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission said the sale of about $315 million in bonds that will be repaid through a surcharge on monthly bills of Entergy’s roughly 1 million customers across the state.

Because Entergy operates as a monopoly in its service area, the PSC can set rates and oversee decisions made by the private company. But the cost of raising broken poles, fixing severed power lines and repairing damaged substations caused by the storm must be paid by the utility’s customers, commissioners say.

The five elected commissioners argue that paying off Entergy with the proceeds of a bond, rather than paying the utility over time, saves customers money.