Receives Recovery Award for Ice Storm Restoration in Arkansas
New Orleans, La. – Entergy
Corporation has won the Edison Electric Institute’s Emergency Recovery Award for
outstanding efforts in restoring power following a destructive ice storm last
year in Arkansas. It is the 12th consecutive year Entergy has received a storm
response award from the Edison Electric Institute.
Entergy is the only company to be
honored every year since the EEI Emergency Response Awards were first presented
in 1998. Entergy has won five awards for its efforts restoring power to its own
customers and nine awards for helping other utilities repair their systems.
Some 423 workers from Entergy
Louisiana, LLC, Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. and Entergy New Orleans,
Inc. traveled to Arkansas in January 2009 to help restore power in the wake of a
devastating ice storm that left 111,000 customers without power.
“I am extremely proud of the
dedicated efforts of our people in Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States
Louisiana, as well as our sister companies in New Orleans, Mississippi, Texas
and Arkansas, who left their homes to return power to others under very
challenging conditions,” said Renae Conley, president and chief executive
officer of Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C.
“They are the true heroes, and this award honors their commitment to help others
during a time a time of need. Many of these same employees have traveled to
Louisiana to help restore power to our customers after hurricanes.”
“Entergy is honored to receive this
award from EEI recognizing our efforts to restore service to our customers,”
said Randy Helmick, Entergy’s “storm boss” and vice president of energy
delivery. “I am extremely proud of the way our team demonstrated our creed that
safety is a core value while successfully restoring service to our Arkansas
customers.”
The storm heavily damaged Entergy
Arkansas, Inc.’s electric infrastructure, including 71 transmission-line-section
outages that affected 64 substations and destroyed 274 transmission structures.
Damage to the distribution system
included 4,883 poles, 712 transformers and 4,253 cross arms damaged or
destroyed.
“We had restoration crews of over
3,500 workers from 15 states overcome dangerous conditions to promptly restore
service while managing through the limited accessibility to the mountainous and
rural areas affected. They compiled 991,000 man-hours of work in their efforts,”
said Helmick.
“The most important thing,” he added,
“is our workers took the time to do it right and remembered that safety is the
most important aspect of any restoration. It proved to be extremely valuable in
ensuring off-system crews understood and adhered to our processes.
“Entergy’s emergency preparedness
plan staved off what could have been a vastly more difficult restoration
effort,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “Their comprehensive approach to reversing
infrastructure damage was a great example of how the entire electric power
industry responds following such an event.”
The “Emergency Recovery Award” and
the “Emergency Assistance Award” are presented annually by EEI to U.S. and
foreign-based member companies to recognize outstanding efforts in restoring
electric service that has been disrupted by severe weather conditions or natural
events. The Recovery Award recognizes exceptional efforts in restoring electric
service by a company in its service territory. Winners of the award were chosen
by a panel of judges following an international nomination process, and awards
were presented Tuesday during EEI’s Spring CEO meetings.
Entergy’s Louisiana utility companies
serve more than one million customers through the operating companies Entergy
Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. With operations in
southern, central and northeastern Louisiana, the companies are part of Entergy
Corporation’s electric system serving 2.7 million customers in Louisiana,
Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.
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Twitter: EntergyMediaLA
