The month of June has seen a striking heat wave, with temperatures reaching the high 90s in Louisiana and the National Weather Service issuing excessive heat warnings over several days.
But staying inside has offered little relief for some customers of Louisiana’s largest electrical utility, reports Louisiana Illuminator. Some consumers have been left without power and air-conditioning—some for days—when they tried to set up new service, change addresses, or change the name on their accounts. They were asked to wait for a call from the verification department as heat indexes crept near 120 degrees.
The process of verifying accounts should be relatively quick, but that has not been the case, according to an interview with Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis and from recent complaints posted online.
The problem appears to have occurred after the company changed how it verifies the identities of account holders. In late May, Entergy moved the process—formerly managed by a third party—in-house.
It’s not clear how widespread the delays have been—whether they have affected customers throughout Entergy’s service areas, which include the most populous parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, as well as a small part of Texas. Entergy has repeatedly declined to provide those details in response to questions from New Orleans journalism nonprofit Verite.
