NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Entergy Corporation utilities are restoring power to customers affected by Hurricane Gustav at the fastest rate in the company's history.
"We have restored power to more customers in four days than we ever have before. Our restoration rate surpasses that accomplished following either hurricanes Katrina or Rita," said Randy Helmick, vice president of transmission, who is leading Entergy's storm restoration efforts in the aftermath of Gustav. "That's a tremendous achievement given how hard Gustav hit our service territory, particularly Louisiana."
Entergy utilities had restored power to 485,297 customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas as of 4 p.m. Friday, the fourth day after Gustav made landfall in Louisiana. That beats the level of restoration following Katrina and Rita. After the fourth day of Katrina restoration, 397,285 customers had power, while 395,436 customers had electric service restored in that same time frame following Rita. At Gustav's peak, it knocked out service to 850,000 customers, making it the second-most damaging storm in Entergy's 95-year history.
In Louisiana, where Gustav did the most damage, Entergy Louisiana LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. had restored power to 301,487 customers as of 4 p.m. Friday. "We are on schedule, and ahead of schedule in some areas, in getting the lights back on for our Louisiana customers," Renae Conley, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, said.
"I'm proud of the nearly 14,000 employees and contractors from all over the country who have responded to this crisis. They are working around the clock to make sure we get power restored as quickly and safely as possible," Conley said.
Workers were continuing damage assessments while at the same time restoring power to customers. To date, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana had counted 5,204 poles damaged, although that number is expected to rise dramatically as work progresses. In addition, Gustav damaged 1,108 transformers in the two utilities' service regions. The number of damaged transformers is also expected to increase significantly as restoration continues.
Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana have opened 18 customer information centers.
"People need the latest possible information on work in their region. We're committed to meeting that need, and these offices provide another option for those customers who still don't have power," Conley said.
In New Orleans, as of 4 p.m. Friday power had been restored to 66,732 customers, or 62 percent of those who lost power. And Entergy Mississippi restored service to 37,656 customers, or 97 percent of those affected, by 4 p.m. Friday. Entergy Arkansas had power back to nearly 80,000 customers by Friday afternoon.
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.
Entergy's online address is http://entergy.com/
