Entergy Earns 12th Consecutive Edison Electric Institute Award for Storm Response; Receives Recovery Award for Ice Storm Restoration in Arkansas

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Mar 03, 2010, 09:00 ET

NEW ORLEANS, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) accepted a national award yesterday for its work restoring power following a destructive ice storm last year in Arkansas. It is the 12th consecutive year Entergy has received a storm response award from the Edison Electric Institute.

Entergy received an EEI Emergency Recovery Award for restoring power to more than 111,000 customers in Arkansas affected by the storm that struck in January 2009.

Entergy is the only company to be honored every year since the EEI Emergency Response Awards were first presented in 1998. Entergy has won five awards for its efforts restoring power to its own customers and nine awards for helping other utilities repair their systems.

"Entergy is honored to receive this award from EEI recognizing our efforts to restore service to our customers," said Randy Helmick, Entergy's "storm boss" and vice president of energy delivery. "I am extremely proud of the way our team demonstrated our creed that safety is a core value while successfully restoring service to our Arkansas customers."

The storm heavily damaged Entergy Arkansas, Inc.'s electric infrastructure, including 71 transmission-line-section outages that affected 64 substations and destroyed 274 transmission structures.

Damage to the distribution system included 4,883 poles, 712 transformers and 4,253 cross arms damaged or destroyed.

"We had restoration crews of over 3,500 workers from 15 states overcome dangerous conditions to promptly restore service while managing through the limited accessibility to the mountainous and rural areas affected. They compiled 991,000 man-hours of work in their efforts," said Helmick.

"The most important thing," he added, "is our workers took the time to do it right and remembered that safety is the most important aspect of any restoration. It proved to be extremely valuable in ensuring off-system crews understood and adhered to our processes.

"Entergy's emergency preparedness plan staved off what could have been a vastly more difficult restoration effort," said EEI President Tom Kuhn. "Their comprehensive approach to reversing infrastructure damage was a great example of how the entire electric power industry responds following such an event."

The "Emergency Recovery Award" and the "Emergency Assistance Award" are presented annually by EEI to U.S. and foreign-based member companies to recognize outstanding efforts in restoring electric service that has been disrupted by severe weather conditions or natural events. The Recovery Award recognizes exceptional efforts in restoring electric service by a company in its service territory. Winners of the award were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process, and awards were presented yesterday during EEI's Spring CEO meetings.

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, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

Entergy's online address is entergy.com

SOURCE Entergy Corporation