How We Respond to an Outage after a Storm

Damage assessment – finding out how hard the system was hit – must be carried out quickly and accurately when the storm is gone, and Entergy acts aggressively to get it done. Damage assessment scouts are prepared in advance, and immediately after impact are dispatched to begin the assessment. Backbone feeders, those with major trunklines that support large electrical loads to customers, get particular attention and 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.

The Restoration Process

In general, restoration of electrical service to customers proceeds in this fashion:

• Large transmission lines receive top priority. Without power available from power plants, all other restoration efforts are useless.

• Substations must be functioning in order for power to reach local distribution lines.

• The backbone feeders, carrying the power from the substation to the customers, are next in priority.

• Emergency services, life support facilities and communications networks (police, hospital, fire stations, media, industry) are restored next.

• Lines serving large blocks of customers are restored next.

• Lines serving neighborhoods follow because multiple customers are involved.

• Individual services are restored last because fewer customers are involved, and, in the case of scattered outages, it often takes more time to get power back on for them.