By Amanda Durish Cook

Customers of Entergy’s five utility subsidiaries have saved about $1.3 billion since they joined MISO in 2013, the company said Monday.

Entergy said the savings — earned between 2014 and 2018 — can be “largely” attributed to participation in “a large pool of generating facilities that stretch across the vast MISO footprint.”

“By sharing in that large pool, Entergy can maintain reliability with less power generation capacity than if it were on its own — and pass the resulting savings along to customers,” the company said in a statement, adding that its dispatch is also more efficient since joining the RTO.

Entergy broke down the five-year savings by subsidiary. Unsurprisingly, Entergy Louisiana — the largest division serving about 1.08 million customers — realized the greatest share at $561 million. Savings at the other utilities generally followed in order of customer base:

• $223 million for Entergy Arkansas’ 711,000 customers;
• $207 million for Entergy Mississippi’s 450,000 customers;
• $198 million for Entergy Texas’ 454,000 customers; and
• $118 million for Entergy New Orleans’ 202,000 customers.

“When we proposed joining MISO, we told our customers this would be a good business decision that would benefit them each month. We believe we have made good on that promise,” said Rod West, Entergy’s group president of utility operations. “Our membership in MISO has been a highly effective tool in helping our customers keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. It has also helped us control costs and keep our rates among the lowest in the nation. Since joining MISO five years ago, Entergy customers have saved an average of $261 million per year. These are real savings for our customers.”

Entergy integrated into MISO at the end of 2013 after coming under pressure from state regulators and a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust investigation examining the company’s “exclusionary conduct” in its service area. The department said Entergy would “resolve” the Antitrust Division’s concerns if it followed through on promises to join an RTO and divest its transmission system to ITC Holdings. The actions would eliminate “Entergy’s ability to maintain barriers to wholesale power markets,” DOJ said at the time.

Three years prior to DOJ’s  integration, a FERC-commissioned study estimated that if Entergy’s operating companies and Cleco Power joined SPP, they could stand to save a net $1.3 billion from 2013 to 2022.

Entergy on Monday also noted that its residential rates are about 27% below the national average, according to 2018 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

MISO Chief Customer Officer Todd Hillman said he was pleased the company and other members are “realizing the benefits of MISO membership.”

“Our vision to be the most reliable, value-creating RTO remains strong as we help our members pass on savings to their customers. MISO’s Value Proposition affirms our core belief that a collective, regionwide approach to grid planning and management delivers the greatest benefits,” Hillman said in a statement emailed to RTO Insider.

MISO has scheduled a Feb. 14 stakeholder presentation to discuss its 2019 Value Proposition, where it documents the savings it provides to all members. The RTO estimated it provided members between $3.2 billion and $3.9 billion in regional benefits in 2018. It doesn’t estimate savings to individual members.