Company History

Two decades of growth

The 1950s and 1960s were decades of growth and prosperity for the company. Capacity grew with demand and the system met all challenges and opportunities. The system’s largest generating station, gas-fired NineMile Point near New Orleans, came online in the 1950s. Little Gypsy, located on the Mississippi River upriver from New Orleans, became the world’s first fully-automated generating unit in 1961.

Edgar Dixon died in 1962 and was succeeded by Gerald Andrus. As MSU’s second president, Andrus’ first major achievement was the creation of the service company, Middle South Services, Inc. (now known as Entergy Services, Inc.) in 1963. The company provided the common services, finance, tax, engineering, communications and human resources support for all five MSU companies.

In 1965 the system was hit by Hurricane Betsy, then the worst storm in the company’s history. Betsy destroyed the southeastern end of the system. In the New Orleans area, 90 percent of the system was damaged or destroyed. All of Louisiana Power and Light’s customers in southern Louisiana were without power. With help from their sister companies and neighboring utilities, nearly all customers were restored within nine days. LP&L’s publication Fifty Years of Service noted at the time that Hurricane Betsy had inflicted “the greatest weather-related damage to a single utility.”

In 1968 the system entered the nuclear age when Arkansas Power and Light was granted a construction permit to build Arkansas Nuclear One Unit One near Russellville, Ark.

By the end of the 1960s, Andrus reported in the annual report that the number of customers had grown to more than 1 million. Generating capacity, primarily using oil and gas, had grown to 6.5 megawatts. The company was growing, but that period of rapid expansion came to an abrupt halt in the 1970s as a result of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo.

The system responded by continuing to diversify its fuel mix. In 1970, LP&L announced plans for its Waterford 3 nuclear unit near Taft, La. Two years later, Mississippi Power and Light announced plans for the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station near Port Gibson, Miss. The same year, System Fuels Inc. was formed to buy fuel for the entire system. This centralized method of fuel procurement meant lower prices and better rates for consumers.