Entergy Arkansas Completes Ice Storm Restoration

02/18/2015

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Julie Munsell

Utility prepares for next round of winter weather

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Entergy Arkansas completed restoration work Wednesday for the more than 30,000 customers who lost power as a result of a damaging ice storm that shut down parts of central and south Arkansas Monday and Tuesday.

As the work progressed Tuesday, crews and heavy equipment were relocated to the hardest-hit areas around Montgomery, Clark, and Pike counties in Southeast Arkansas and Dallas and Drew counties in Southwest Arkansas. A few thousand remained out Wednesday morning. All storm-related outages are back on now except those whose customer-owned equipment must be repaired before they are re-connected.

“We appreciate the patience of those who have endured this cold weather without electricity as our crews have worked to repair the widespread damage as quickly as is safely possible,” said Brady Aldy, vice president of customer service for Entergy Arkansas. “Also, a word of gratitude for our dedicated employees, both in the field and behind the scenes, whose lives revolve around getting the lights back on when we’re in storm mode, as we have been since late last week. Many thanks, also, to the hundreds of out-of-state Entergy workers and contractors who answered the call for help. Restoration would have taken a very long time without their hard work under difficult circumstances.”

With this week’s restoration work behind them, Entergy Arkansas’ storm team looks ahead to a weekend weather system expected to enter the state Friday morning. Fortunately, forecasters are predicting a milder storm than what the state saw Sunday evening. Still, Entergy planners will plan for the worst and hope for the best. “We have put contractors and others on alert that their help may be needed again in a couple of days,” said Audie Foret, manager of operations and safety. “Certainly we hope that will not be the case, but we are fortunate to be able to call on them when we need them.”

Entergy Arkansas provides electricity to approximately 700,000 customers in 63 counties. Entergy Arkansas is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, 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 $12 billion and approximately 13,000 employees.

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More information is available on Entergy’s website at entergy-arkansas.com

@entergyark