Published: October 03, 2008 11:50 am         

Lower bills on the way to Entergy customers; Utility’s fuel adjustment will drop another 9 percent for remainder of 2008

Customers of Entergy Mississippi, Inc. will soon see another reduction in what they pay for electricity when the company’s fourth quarter fuel adjustment goes into effect Oct. 1.

The quarterly adjustment, effective from October through December, will reduce residential bills by nine percent.

The typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month will see a savings of nearly $10.50. The lower rates are in addition to a mid-quarter adjustment in September that lowered customers’ bills 9.6 percent in September.

Combined, the two reductions total an 18.6 percent decrease for the utility’s residential customers or more than $23 from July and August bills.

“We are once again pleased that our customers will continue to see relief from higher fuel prices,” said Haley Fisackerly, president and chief executive officer, Entergy Mississippi, Inc. “While natural gas prices have been declining in recent months, they are still too high. We are in a national energy crisis, and will continue to work hard to find solutions that will benefit our customers.”

The volatility of the natural gas market caused a 28 percent increase in customers’ bills in July and August.

However, in late July prices for natural gas began dropping, leading to downward adjustments that began with September bills. Should fuel prices rise again in this volatile market, they could have a negative impact on future customer bills as natural gas is Entergy Mississippi’s largest fuel source.

While Entergy Mississippi uses a diverse mix of fuel to generate electricity at the lowest reasonable cost, nearly 60 percent of the current mix is natural gas.

The company has worked to manage through the increase, which reflects the actual costs of fuel incurred by Entergy Mississippi and is passed through dollar-for-dollar to customers with no profit for the company. Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides electricity to more than 433,000 customers in 45 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation.

Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.6 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.