News Release > Entergy Arkansas Files for Recovery of Costs to Enhance Grid, Purchase Power Plant Unit

Entergy Arkansas Files for Recovery of Costs to Enhance Grid, Purchase Power Plant Unit

04/23/2015

Union Power Station

Company outlines plans for modernization, economic development

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Economic development and electrical system modernization are the hallmarks of Entergy Arkansas' blueprint to enhance reliability and provide the power to grow business in the state. The company laid out its plans to make improvements across the service territory with the Arkansas Public Service Commission today.

"Our employees have put a considerable amount of  infrastructure in place over the last two years to enhance reliability and prepare Arkansas for future economic growth," said Hugh McDonald, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. "This new foundation will help deliver a bright future that includes more investment in Arkansas, more jobs and stronger communities," McDonald said.

As part of the utility's plan to position Arkansas for the future, the company is requesting to recover costs that result in a $167 million impact on customer bills in early 2016. These costs are driven largely by enhancements to the electrical grid and the purchase of a 495-megawatt unit at the Union Power Station near El Dorado.  If approved, the adjustment would change the monthly bill of a typical residential customer using 1,000 kWh by approximately $13.00 or 45 cents a day.

"These investments will not only strengthen our grid but will allow us to leverage the industrialization that is happening in our region and maintain customer rates below the national and regional averages," said McDonald.

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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Additional investor information can be accessed at www.entergy.com/investor_relations

In this news release, and from time to time, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. makes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, Entergy Arkansas undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including (a) those factors discussed elsewhere in this news release and in Entergy Arkansas' most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Entergy Arkansas' other reports and filings made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; (b) uncertainties associated with rate proceedings, formula rate plans and other cost recovery mechanisms; (c) uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of major storms and recover related restoration costs; (d) nuclear plant relicensing, operating and regulatory risks, including any changes resulting from the nuclear crisis in Japan following its catastrophic earthquake and tsunami; (e) changes in decommissioning trust fund values or earnings or in the timing or cost of decommissioning nuclear plant sites; (f) legislative and regulatory actions and risks and uncertainties associated with claims or litigation by or against Entergy Arkansas or its subsidiaries; (g) risks and uncertainties associated with strategic transactions that Entergy Arkansas or its subsidiaries may undertake, including the proposed acquisition of the Union Power Station in El Dorado, Arkansas, including the risk that any such transaction may not be completed as and when expected and the risk that the anticipated benefits of the transaction may not be realized, and (h) economic conditions and conditions in commodity and capital markets during the periods covered by the forward-looking statements.