Entergy Arkansas is seeking a 3.96 percent increase in its residential rates from the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
If approved, the increase means a customer with a $100 monthly bill would then see a bill of $103.96 a month, assuming the same energy use.
Entergy, which has about 715,000 customers in 63 Arkansas counties, has requested that the commission reach a decision on the filing by Dec. 13. Any rate change would also take effect in December.
Filed on Friday, the request is the second made by Entergy under a more streamlined filing process approved by the state Legislature. Last year, the commission approved a 3.38 percent rate increase for Entergy.
The commission and its general staff have 60 days to file any objections, said John Bethel, executive director of the general staff.
Entergy's revenue requirements are pretty evenly split among Entergy's generation, transmission and distribution systems, said Kerri Case, an Entergy spokesman.
Entergy has allocated an increase of $40.8 million for its Arkansas Nuclear One plant near Russellville.
Part of that is for replacing equipment that has come to the end of its useful life, Case said.
And part of that is needed for hiring more personnel at the plant, Case said.
"Nuclear expenses [are] largely related to an increase in payroll, engineering program and other training, design and licensing, plant improvement and maintenance, support services and other miscellaneous costs at [Arkansas Nuclear One]," Rick Riley, Entergy Arkansas' chief executive officer, said in testimony filed with the commission.
Since late 2012, the nuclear plant's staff has seen an unexpected increase in retirements, an executive with the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said last year. The turnover affected more than half of the plant's engineers, leaving inexperienced engineers who had trouble with the plant's programs.
The state Legislature approved the annual filing process for Arkansas' investor-owned utilities, known as a formula rate plan, in 2015. The plan is a regulatory mechanism for adjusting rates instead of waiting several years to file rate cases.
"We were able to efficiently review last year's application," Bethel said. "There weren't any issues that made it difficult to make our review and recommendation within the time frame of the formula rate plan filing last year. It's a different process than a full rate case."
It's also a more compressed schedule, Bethel said.
"But there are also fewer things that can change or be adjusted," Bethel said.
The state's largest natural gas utility, CenterPoint Energy, in April filed an annual request for a rate increase. CenterPoint is seeking a 2.8 percent rate increase for residential customers, Bethel said.
The Public Service Commission is studying the request and has scheduled a hearing on the CenterPoint case for Aug. 9.
A Section on 07/11/2017