Entergy's Louisiana Utilities to Hit 70 Percent Restoration Mark Sunday Night

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 07, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- EYNON | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Entergy Corporation's Louisiana utilities expect to have power restored to 70 percent of Louisiana customers affected by Hurricane Gustav by Sunday night.

Entergy New Orleans, Inc. had restored power to 96 percent of its customers by 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Entergy Gulf Utilities Louisiana, L.L.C. estimated more than 60 percent of Baton Rouge metro area customers should have power restored by the end of Sunday.

"We are making significant progress in restoring power thanks to the skill and dedication of the thousands of workers we have deployed across Louisiana," said Renae Conley, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana. "We remain on schedule and are confident we will meet our restoration goals. For those customers who are still without power, we ask for your continued patience and understanding. There are many of us at Entergy who know firsthand how stressful it is to still be without power because of Gustav. We also know how hard everyone at Entergy is working to get all customers' lights back on as soon as possible."

Other highlights include:

-- Entergy Louisiana has restored more than 275,000 customers as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday, while Entergy Gulf States Louisiana has restored to roughly 167,000 customers. At the peak of the storm, more than 442,000 Entergy Louisiana customers and approximately 280,000 Entergy Gulf States Utilities Louisiana customers had lost power.

-- Entergy New Orleans had power to approximately 103,000 customers by 11:30 a.m. Sunday. At the peak of the storm, nearly 108,000 New Orleans customers were without power.

-- Approximately 90 percent of customers in upper Jefferson Parish should have power by the end of Sunday. Full restoration is expected by the end of Tuesday for that part of the parish.

-- More than 60 percent of customers in the Baton Rouge metro area, which includes Port Allen, Gonzales and Denham Springs, should have power restored by Sunday night. Approximately 119,000 Baton Rouge area customers, or 52 percent, had power as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday, and another 25,000 were expected to be restored by the end of Sunday. More than 228,000 Baton Rouge metro customers lost power at the peak of the storm.

-- Work remains on schedule to restore power to 90 percent of customers in Livingston Parish by the end of Sunday and 100 percent by Tuesday night. Ninety percent of customers in Ascension Parish, outside of Donaldsonville, are expected to have power by Monday night. Estimates are that 90 percent of Donaldsonville customers will have power by Sept. 20, with complete restoration by Sept. 24.

-- Entergy has reactivated the company's new Web site feature, View Outages. View Outages features a map of the four states in the Entergy service territory that allows customers to see where outages are occurring, either from a system, state or neighborhood perspective. Customers can reach the View Outages section from http://www.entergy.com.

-- The companies have opened 18 Customer Information Centers across the southern part of the state in the coming days. Information about the information centers, including locations and times, can be found at http://www.entergy.com.

-- Electrical service to all 12 refineries affected by the storm has been restored.

-- Gustav caused widespread damage to Entergy's equipment in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Damages caused by Gustav include 241 transmission lines and 352 substations knocked out of service and more than 8,200 poles and 1,900 transformers confirmed as either damaged or destroyed.

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 $11 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.

Visit the Entergy Storm Center online at http://www.entergy.com

SOURCE Entergy Corporation

http://www.entergy.com/

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