Electric bills are rising—and so is the frustration felt by families, small businesses, and major employers across Louisiana. While storms and infrastructure damage get much of the blame, there’s a deeper issue at work: the lack of meaningful choice in how Louisianans access electricity.
Most Louisiana residents and businesses are served by big monopoly utilities— large companies that enjoy guaranteed profits and exclusive rights to serve customers. These big monopolies operate without the pressure to innovate, reduce costs, or improve service, and without alternative options for meeting Louisiana’s electricity needs, costs keep going up. For example, a February 2025 report filed at the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) by the Louisiana Energy Users Group (LEUG) found the state’s largest monopoly utility’s base rates had increased over 40% since 2018 and are projected to increase by an additional 40% by 2030.
But there’s good news. The LPSC is currently evaluating a set of forward-thinking solutions that could change this dynamic. Docket R-35462, now under review, includes a set of proposals known as Customer-Centered Options (CCOs), which presents an opportunity to modernize our energy framework and reduce electricity costs and risks for all Louisiana ratepayers.
The Commission’s work to evaluate Customer-Centered Options is about empowering consumers, not dismantling the utilities that keep the lights on. By considering the feasibility of common-sense, market-based steps that have been successfully adopted in other states, the LPSC is seeking solutions to benefit all Louisiana consumers. They include allowing certain large energy customers to procure or generate their own power at their own cost under limited conditions, so long as those choices result in cost savings or system benefits for everyone. They also contemplate allowing companies that want to buy renewable energy the ability to buy that energy directly so that the rest of us don’t have to pay for renewable energy we never asked for. Taken together, these Customer-Centered Options could help all Louisiana ratepayers save hundreds of millions of dollars by reducing the need for expensive utility-owned power plants.
Predictably, some utilities have pushed back, claiming that evaluating these options would disrupt economic development or threaten grid reliability. But let’s be clear: exploring new solutions does not mean abandoning what works. It means giving consumers, communities, and job creators a seat at the table—and the tools to manage their energy needs more efficiently and affordably.
These ideas are not radical. Many other states have already adopted similar reforms, and they’ve seen real benefits: smarter energy usage, more resilient systems, and better outcomes for consumers. Louisiana deserves the same chance to explore what’s possible.
The LPSC has already taken important steps by opening the docket, inviting public comment, and analyzing the data. Now, it should stay the course and resist the utilities’ calls to end the evaluation of these Customer Centered Options.
Louisiana needs more options, not fewer. More tools for controlling costs. More pathways to ensure reliability. And more solutions that reflect the evolving needs of consumers, industries, and communities alike.