News Release > All in a Day’s Work: Tens of Thousands of Utility Poles Undergo Inspection

All in a Day’s Work: Tens of Thousands of Utility Poles Undergo Inspection

02/02/2015

Contact: 
Mara Hartmann
Entergy Mississippi, Inc.
mhartma@entergy.com

JACKSON, Miss. –Each winter, Entergy Mississippi, Inc. contractors spread out across towns and neighborhoods across the state to inspect tens of thousands of utility poles to ensure they can stand up to another year of heat, cold, wind, rain, snow and maybe even ice. This week, crews will be in Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties.

The company owns about half a million of these poles, and Mother Nature can be rough on them. Regular inspections help ensure the poles won’t fail, leaving customers in the dark.

“This initiative is one of hundreds of such projects Entergy Mississippi will tackle this year in an effort to maintain and improve our service reliability,” said Robbin Jeter, Entergy Mississippi vice president of customer service. “Our customers count on us to deliver safe, reliable and affordable electricity to their homes, schools and businesses, so we use whatever tools it takes to keep the lights on.”

Those tools can be high tech, like infrared sensors, or low-tech, such as the visual inspections of the poles. Both methods help improve the integrity of the company’s electrical infrastructure.

During pole inspections, crews will rigorously inspect the poles for defects. Following a visual inspection, the poles are “sounded” with a hammer to find any internal voids or hollow cavities. Inspectors need access to every pole, whether on an easily-accessible roadway or in a narrow alley behind a home or business. Poles identified as needing maintenance are reported to Entergy Mississippi for corrective action.

Osmose Utilities Services, Inc., a specialist in its field, performs the routine preventative maintenance work for Entergy. Some 32,000 poles will be inspected this year. About 325,000 of Entergy’s poles are wood; the rest are concrete or steel.

Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides electricity to approximately 441,000 customers in 45 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. 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, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation’s leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.

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