If Entergy customers don’t want to have their bills averaged out, they need to make sure that their meters are in a location where the reader can get to it.
“It is the responsibility of the customer to make sure the meter is available,” Morgan Stewart, spokesman for Entergy New Orleans, said. “If we can’t get to the meter, we have to estimate the customer’s bill and we will then communicate with them and tell them that they need to make the meter available.”
Entergy averages those bills by using a computer program that takes into account the previous two monthly bill amounts, plus the bill amount for the same month during the previous year.
However, not that many bills have to be averaged out. According to Entergy, only .82 percent of the total bills in Louisiana were estimated, while .54 percent were estimated in St. Charles Parish.
Phillip Allison, the communication specialist for Entergy Louisiana, said that most of the time, a locked back gate or an animal prevents proper reading of the meters.
“Most people have meters on the side front corner of their house, so it’s not really a problem for us to get to them there,” Allison said. “However, we do have some meters that are in backyards, and our readers won’t go out there if the gate is locked or if there is a pet outside.”
Allison says that the first time Entergy has to estimate a bill, they put a note on the bill explaining that they couldn’t get to the meter. The second time, the customer gets a letter.
On the third occasion, which is the last straight month that Entergy is able to estimate a bill, the customer gets a more strongly-worded letter.
Entergy does offer several options when it comes to a hard to reach meter.
“We do offer company locks to our customers who have a locked back gate,” Allison said. “That way, the customer and the reader can both get into the backyard.”
Another option is that the customer will give the reader a key.
There are also a couple of limited solutions that Entergy uses.
They have an meters that can be read with a hand-held reader and customers can also take their own readings and send them to Entergy.
“Neither of those are done very often,” Allison said.
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