New Orleans electricity rates could rise from Isaac damage

Hurricane Isaac threw a new wrench into the plans of New Orleans city and utility officials, who are currently deciding how much the city's residents will pay for electricity in 2013, New Orleans Business News reports.

According to the news source, officials are assessing damage from the slow-moving Hurricane Isaac. This will be measured alongside the work utilities and the city have already done. Entergy New Orleans proposed a plan in May in which there would be a slight rise in residential electricity rates.

Under the plan, customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours of power per month would see a rise of about $2.51 on the monthly electricity bill. However, with the damage from Isaac thrown into the mix, rates could rise, depending on the impact the storm had on the utilities' storm reserve, the news provider stated.

Entergy New Orleans had been giving its 160,000 customers a 10 percent discount on their monthly bill for the last four years.

Louisiana could benefit from energy deregulation laws. In neighboring Texas, such laws have helped create a thriving retail energy market that has brought huge savings to electric customers throughout the state.