Six leaders with NextGEN, the company that wants to manage and operate Lafayette Utilities System, spoke to the Lafayette City-parish Council and the public on Tuesday about how the company plans to manage, grow and improve the city-owned system.
Mayor-President Joel Robideaux has said several companies were interested in 2017 in buying LUS and LUS fiber, The Daily Advertiser reports. When he rejected the sale, only Baton Rouge-based Bernhard Capital Partners came back with the idea of managing and operating LUS under a new company called NextGEN, instead of purchasing. Â
However, since the Bernhard/NextGEN proposal became public, other energy companies, including Entergy, Slemco and Cleco, have expressed interested in pitching deals.
Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May sent a letter Tuesday to the council expressing interest in submitting “a competitive, cost-based proposal to the city.” He requested the opportunity for the company to conduct research and submit a proposal.
Should NextGEN’s proposal be accepted, the company would sign a 40-year cooperative endeavour, agree not to sell LUS assets, allow the Lafayette Public Utilities Authority continued oversight, grant residential electric customers a 10% rate reduction for three years, take on $184 million of LUS debt, pay the city $140 million in cash up front and build a mixed-use commercial building to house its headquarters in Lafayette.
