Entergy Texas Pole Inspections Happening Across Beaumont

03/25/2021

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – To keep the power reliably flowing, Entergy Texas works year-round to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure to improve service reliability to customers across Southeast Texas. One way the company works to improve reliability is by annually inspecting its utility poles. This year alone, some 55,000 poles will be inspected across southeast Texas. Over the next few weeks, contract crews will be inspecting poles in Beaumont.

Over time, utility poles can become weathered by the forces of Mother Nature or even damaged by members of the public. Inspections help identify poles that need to be reinforced or replaced and helps prevent outages before they occur. Osmose Utilities Services, Inc., a specialist in its field, will perform the routine inspections and preventative maintenance work for Entergy Texas.

“Inspections are critical to maintaining and improving reliability across our system,” said Allen East, Entergy Texas vice president of distribution operations. “This is just one of the many reliability projects Entergy Texas is conducting this year to ensure we’re delivering safe, reliable and affordable electricity to communities across southeast Texas.”

Inspectors will need access to every pole, whether on an easily accessible roadway or in a narrow alley behind a home or business. During pole inspections, crews will rigorously inspect poles for defects. Following a visual inspection, the poles are “sounded” with a hammer to find any internal voids or hollow cavities. Poles that show signs of internal or external decay are fully excavated to determine the extent of decay at the groundline. Osmose may reinforce some poles during the inspection, but poles identified as needing further maintenance will be reported to Entergy Texas for replacement at a later date.

About Entergy Texas

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to approximately 473,000 customers in 27 counties. Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) is an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations. Entergy delivers electricity to 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy owns and operates one of the cleanest large-scale U.S. power generating fleets with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including 8,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, Entergy has annual revenues of $10 billion and more than 13,000 employees.

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