The restoration process is done in an orderly, deliberate manner

As soon as it's safe to begin working, our crews start turning the lights back on for our customers. Restoration efforts begin as scouts start assessing the storm’s damage, and crews start needed repairs at the source and work outward.

Every storm is unique, but our history with storm restoration is a guide to predicting the amount of damage and restoration time following a hurricane. Before a hurricane makes landfall, we make estimates on restoration timelines based on the category, intensity, size and track of the storm. Major hurricanes can cause extended outage restoration times. While majority of customers may be restored quicker, some of the hardest hit areas could take longer dependent on the extent of damage to Entergy’s electrical facilities.

Restoring power where possible happens in parallel with damage assessments, for example, by initially closing circuit breakers and rerouting power.

 

Scouting and damage assessment

Right after the storm passes, Entergy personnel must assess damage to electric equipment and facilities to determine corrective actions. Finding out how hard the system was hit must be carried out quickly and accurately after the storm is gone. Damage assessment scouts are prepared in advance, and immediately after impact, they are dispatched to begin the assessment.

Backbone feeders, those with major trunk lines that support large electrical loads to customers, get particular attention. They must be restored to service as soon as possible. This initial assessment helps develop an estimate of crews required, resources needed and the time estimated to complete restoration.

Following this, scouts are assigned to work directly with storm teams in the field to help provide the detailed assessment and support needed to facilitate the restoration. Depending on the severity of the damage, full assessment can take up to three days.

What is the scouting process?

Check out this explanation from one of our scouts during Hurricane Delta:

Certain types of work, such as repairs requiring the use of bucket trucks, cannot be safely completed when winds exceed 30 miles per hour.

Restoration process

When crews build their restoration plans, they start at the source. If power can't make it from the generating plant to your local substation, it can't be delivered to your neighborhood or your street.

Once power is flowing back into an area via these larger systems, restorations occur in this order:

• Emergency services, life support facilities and communications networks (police, hospital, fire stations, media, industry) are restored.
• Lines serving large blocks of customers are restored next.
• Lines serving neighborhoods follow because multiple customers are involved.
• Individual services are then restored because fewer customers are involved, and, in the case of scattered outages, it often takes more time and effort to get power back on.
• Note: We don't base our restoration plan on customers' locations or their business history with us. Also, customers should report an outage only once. Making multiple reports for the same outage will not affect restoration times and ties up phone lines.

Download a PDF of the restoration process

Call 1-800-9OUTAGE (1-800-968-8243) to report downed power lines