Resilience was the central thread weaving through three key agenda items during the Louisiana Public Service Commission’s (LPSC) November meeting. 

What is resilience and why does it matter?

The session underscored resilience as the governing principle for utility decisions. Stakeholders highlighted a shift from ad hoc fixes to structured investment and transparent oversight, centering on how to reduce outage risk, speed restoration, and protect customers during extreme weather events. Commissioners and industry representatives alike described resilience not as a single project but as an ongoing, auditable program that links physical hardening with robust planning and clear cost recovery.

In Louisiana, common resilience strategies look like: 

• Hardening critical assets - elevating or floodproofing substations, reinforcing interconnections
• Enhancing vegetation management to help reduce calamity-induce outages
• Integration of energy storage, demand response and distributed energy resources during storms
• Proactive planning and operational readiness

Examples from Uri, Francine and Cleco

During the LPSC meeting, conversations around SWEPCO’s recovery from Winter Storm Uri in 2021 started the day’s technical questions about weatherization and procurement strategies. Commissioner Davante Lewis asked questions focused on SWEPCO’s proactive measures and what concrete steps the company is taking to harden facilities against future ice and storm events. 

SWEPCO reps emphasized Uri as a turning point, noting that “that was an unusual storm, it was THE storm,” and pointing to plans for a major resilience initiative that would complement existing vegetation work as part of a broader, phased approach to winterization and emergency preparedness. Commissioner Lewis pressed for details on proactive steps and the state of winterization programs, and noted conversations with public service commissioners in other states who are also having conversations about how utilities translate storm hardening into tangible reliability improvements.

The meeting addressed the Hurricane Francine cost-recovery framework and how the storm escrow mechanism interacts with rate design. The commission examined Entergy Louisiana’s recovery filings, noting that about $1.8 million of roughly $33 million drawn from O&M funds would be refunded back to the escrow account. Staff recommended approving the uncontested settlement, though Commissioner Lewis sought clarity on distinctions from prior storms and the purpose of carrying a storm escrow reserve, saying its a common question he gets from his constituents. 

The discussion clarified that Francine’s costs were treated as interim recovery with the distribution recovery mechanism (DRM) handling the capital portion, while O&M charges leveraged the storm escrow—aiming to keep bill impacts modest. As of the latest figures, the storm escrow balance was in the mid-$240 million range, underscoring the state’s ongoing use of pre-funded reserves to cushion customers from sudden, catastrophe-driven swings in billings.

The panel advanced its docket on Cleco’s Phase 1 Comprehensive Hardening Plan (Docket U-37479). The agenda noted the settlement’s reduction to a focused subset of resiliency projects spanning 2026–2030, with an estimated price tag around $200 million which SREA did not oppose. 

Why does this matter?

You can’t understate the importance of hardening infrastructure and resilience for utilities and customers in Louisiana, a state that’s consistently exposed to extreme weather and is dealing with an aging grid components. However, these resilience investments must deliver measurable reliability benefits while maintaining customer equity. 

Cleco’s Mark Kleehammer framed the value proposition in terms of reliability gains versus the costs of restoration during heat storms and the disconnect between outage inconvenience and system hardening. “We’re hardening for storms, and you’re going to see reliability benefits. I think we can bring a lot more value to customers. There are costs incurred when you’re restoring in the heat of a storm. But the biggest issue is when our customers are inconvenienced when their power is out,” Kleehammer said.

As the state continues to weigh the most effective paths for weatherization, vegetation management, and infrastructure upgrades, regulators and utilities alike are aligning on a framework that values proactive planning, transparent reporting, and prudent cost recovery to keep Louisiana’s grid resilient in the face of increasingly severe weather.