Entergy prepared for colder months ahead

As hurricane season came to an official end on the last day of November, cooler temps are just starting to arrive, with colder weather expected over the holidays and into the new year. Even if we live or work where extremely cold temperatures are not persistent, it’s still important to be prepared for freezing and inclement weather. As we know, cold snaps can happen without much warning.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center, El Nino will remain in place across the winter season for the first time in four years. The expected results will be wetter and cooler winter months this year, bringing much-needed drought relief to our service area. Temperatures overall are expected to be a few degrees cooler this winter.   

We’ve learned to be ready for anything

The past two years have seen major winter weather events in February and December of 2022 and January and February 2023, with parts of our service area experiencing winter storms that brought high winds, freezing rains and ice accumulation. The winter season of 2021 saw the coldest outbreak in the U.S. in more than 30 years.

While weather can be unpredictable, we remain storm ready no matter the season. And we’ve taken measures in advance to ensure we’re winter-ready:

Unique readiness plans in place for each power plant

• Performing early fall season assessments to identify and correct winterization deficiencies on sensitive plant equipment.
• Insulating critical equipment using improved methods and materials that allow them to withstand lower temperatures.
• Insulating or draining piping with potential for standing water during normal operation, to prevent freezing and breaks.
• Designing and building permanent windbreaks or enclosures to protect critical equipment and instrumentation.
• Exploring the use of wireless instrument line monitoring systems to monitor temperatures of critical equipment.
• Hosting winter season lessons learned across our system – including the sharing of operational experiences across power plants with similar technologies. 

Measures taken with transmission lines, facilities

• Inspecting and maintaining substations and transmission lines that are critical to Bulk Electric System reliability.
• Performing substation inspections in accordance with transmission management procedures.
• Identifying any potential equipment performance issues.
• Testing infrequently used generating units, including the startup of emergency generators, where applicable, and checking freeze protection equipment. 

Critical systems and infrastructure prepared across the grid

• Inspecting and testing equipment that can be impacted by extreme cold such as gas-filled circuit breakers.
• Ensuring the readiness of assets that provide electric service to critical gas infrastructure and other points of delivery that are vital to support generation reliability and resiliency. 

We’re storm ready, 365 days a year

When a weather threat arises, we ramp up support:

• We use forecasts and computer models based on experience with previous storms to predict an estimated number and duration of outages that could possibly occur.
• Based on those estimates, the company calls on restoration workers from around the country to restore power as safely and quickly as possible for our customers.
• Entergy continuously plans and improves the process of assessing damage, positioning personnel in the right place with the required materials to restore power as safely and quickly as possible.
• We take steps to maintain and control vegetation across our service area, completing annual clearing of right-of-way areas to minimize the impact from fallen trees or branches following a storm.
• Prior to storms impacting our area, vegetation crews perform pre-storm patrols of circuits to mitigate any imminent threats within the right of way.
• Our year-round storm preparations include the vegetation management program and the targeted “ground to sky” vegetation trimming, which removes tree limbs that would normally have been above the power line.
• We also use artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to help predict when trimming may be needed.

Customers should prepare now

Being prepared can help keep you safe. Get ready before weather threatens your area by having an emergency plan in place. Find safekeeping resources on our Storm Center:

• Get prepared: Make a plan, make a kit.
• Prepare your home: Winterize inside and out.
• Your mobile phone: A lifeline during a disaster.
• Stay informed: Download the app, report an outage.
• Stay safe: Safety after the storm.
• Generator safety: Know the hazards.
• Gas safety: Know the signs.
• Extreme cold safety: Indoor and outdoor tips.  

 

Verify your contact information in your online myEntergy account before severe weather strikes, so you receive our notifications. If a storm impacts your area, you can report an outage quickly and easily through our digital options – using either our free mobile app, online at myEntergy.com, or by texting OUT to 36778.