For years, Entergy field personnel have been using drone technology to respond to issues after a storm passes. Outside of storm response, our drone pilots fly the lines to inspect for reliability issues. Teams use this data to help plan for vegetation management and equipment upgrades and maintenance.

In Mississippi, Zack Donnelly works with a team of 20 pilots who regularly inspect our system for hot spots, or areas that may be likely to fail. With that information, Entergy employees can do a better job of fixing problems before they cause outages.

“Drones allow us to quickly access an area and define the issue while keeping our field personnel safe,” said Donnelly.

For Donnelly and his team to scout those hard-to-reach areas, they fly a drone roughly 200 feet into the air, while remaining in line-of-sight of the pilot, and the drone can instantly see what would take ground-based scouts many hours to cover. Faster scouting means faster restoration.

While Entergy continues to use helicopters to patrol transmission lines, drones are able to get up close for spot checks of distribution overhead equipment; they are even able to read the serial number off of a transformer, which is hung about 30 feet in the air. Before drones, one would have to either climb a pole or ride up in a bucket.

“This is an exciting time to be with Entergy,” said Donnelly. “Technology is advancing rapidly at an exponential rate, and Entergy is positioning itself to utilize this technology to work smarter.”

Entergy’s drone pilots are trained professionals with a license through the Federal Aviation Administration. For your safety, and the safety of Entergy’s equipment, do not fly drones near power lines, substations or other electrical equipment.

Some compare this phenomenon to an airplane, where the ice freezes to the wire, creating a wing-type effect and making the lines move up and down. Wind blows across the conductor, which creates lift. With the right conditions, this will cause the lines to gallop. Minor galloping generally has no negative effect, but moderate galloping can cause adjacent conductors to contact and cause a fault. If severe enough the conductor can cause serious structural damage.

While we can’t prevent lines from galloping, there are a number of ways our engineers try to prevent the impact of galloping lines. This includes controlling the tension in the conductor during the initial installation and installing dampers at certain locations on the line. Selecting the damper location is normally done using software that considers conductor size, span lengths and tension.

to learn more about how our crews respond to cold weather.

Preparing for winter weather

Staying informed before, during and after severe weather strikes is just as important as making personal storm plans. Here’s how you can stay up to date on our preparations and restoration efforts:

• Download the Entergy App . Customers can use the app to report outages or check on the status of power at their home or business.
• Sign up for����about storm and restoration efforts by texting REG to 36778.

• Social media��plays an important role in keeping customers informed, and the company places a high priority on updating its social media channels throughout an event with tips. Customers can follow Entergy on�������Ի���.

• The����website��has storm safety, preparation and restoration information that is updated throughout the day.

The February storm earlier this year was reported as the coldest outbreak in the U.S. in more than 30 years. In fact, low-temperature records below zero and in the teens dating back to 1903 were met and exceeded in several parts of our service area, especially southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Mississippi hadn’t seen single-digit air temperatures in more than three decades.

Following the freeze, we conducted a significant review of our preparedness and protections against extreme conditions, developed a comprehensive plan to better protect our power plants from cold, and made substantial progress in our work on improving those protections. The company also worked with a third party to develop plant-specific and business unit procedures to implement the latest winter readiness standard that will be used starting this winter season.

Each of our power plants has a customized plan that was developed to support our fleetwide winter preparedness efforts. Preparations across our fleet have been completed, including:

• Insulating critical equipment using improved methods and materials to protect them from lower temperatures.
• Insulating all piping, with the potential for standing water during normal operation, to prevent freezing.
• Designing and building permanent windbreaks or enclosures to protect pumps and other critical equipment.
• Exploring the use of wireless instrument line monitoring systems to monitor temperatures of critical equipment.

Our efforts to prepare and maintain critical systems and infrastructure across the grid in advance of colder temperatures have also included:

• 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.
• Inspecting and maintaining substations and transmission lines that are critical to Bulk Electric System reliability.

Storm Ready, Year-round

Monitoring severe weather threats is a full-time job, 24/7, 365 days a year. When one arises, 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 safely get the power back on as safely and quickly as possible for 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. And, we use satellite imagery to help predict when trimming may be needed.

Customers Should Prepare Now

Even if you live where extremely��cold temperatures are rare, it’s still important to be prepared for��freezing weather.��Have a and a family emergency plan ready as the��winter season begins.��Act now to begin .

During severe winter weather, power lines may be downed from falling branches or other hazards. There is no way for you to know if the line is energized or not. If you see downed or low-hanging lines, stay away and call to report them.

Staying informed before, during and after severe weather strikes is just as important as making personal storm plans. Here’s how you can stay up to date on our preparations and restoration efforts:

• Download the Entergy App . Customers can use the app to report outages or check on the status of power at their home or business.
• Sign up for����about storm and restoration efforts by texting REG to 36778.
• Social media��plays an important role in keeping customers informed, and the company places a high priority on updating its social media channels throughout an event with tips. Customers can follow Entergy on�������Ի���.
• The����website��has storm safety, preparation and restoration information that is updated throughout the day.

As crews work to restore power in Southwest Louisiana, customers may see new distribution poles but remain without power. While the distribution system was heavily impacted by Hurricane Laura, we also had significant damage to our transmission system. This system consists of lines carrying high-voltage electricity quickly and efficiently over long distances and are often seen along highways, interstates or crossing water. While our distribution structures were damaged as well, transmission structures are larger, harder to transport, and require more crews to construct.

If the grid and the flow of power were compared to our highway system, transmission lines would be the interstates, substations would be the off-ramps and distribution lines would be the streets and roads that lead to homes and businesses.

The transmission system is the backbone of the electric grid and helps Entergy move power from the power plant to the lines serving customers’ neighborhoods. Power must be restored to transmission lines and substations in order to energize the distribution lines that serve businesses and homes. Without these lines in service, it makes it difficult to move power across the system to customers in the affected areas.

Over the past five years, Entergy Arkansas has made reducing outages a priority – so much so we have invested over $700 million to reduce customer interruptions by over 40%. With this investment, we have strengthened our transmission system specifically to support load growth, reliability and keeping our customers’ costs low. So, what does this look like? ��

We can keep our customer rates below the national and regional average by providing our system access to affordable power and dispersing it to communities across our state.

Since 2015, Entergy Arkansas completed 21 major transmission line rebuilds and new transmission line construction projects that have increased the capacity of our system as well as our ability to move energy economically and efficiently. Three projects have reduced energy production costs and energy losses. These efforts included upgrading transmission lines from ANO to Pleasant Hill substation to 500 kV, installing 500 kV lines in Mabelvale and upgrading transmission lines between Mabelvale, Bryant and South Bryant.

All completed between 2018 and 2019, these projects were focused on upgrading our transmission lines and replacing equipment. With these advancements, we were able to reduce congestion on our system and provide our customers cheaper, more reliable power.

Customers in Russellville, Brinkley, Crossett, El Dorado, Emerson and Magnolia were also among those who have benefited directly from some of these transmission infrastructure upgrades. These improvements helped give us access to wholesale electric markets and allow us to more efficiently and cost effectively deliver energy to our customers.

We invest to ensure our existing substations and structures continue to provide safe power to your homes and businesses. In the last five years, we have directed significant resources to update our equipment and patrol our lines with drones allowing us to quickly and safely restore power during an incident.

But our work is never done. We plan to allocate more than $39 million in 2021 to improve our transmission system so you can continue to have days without interruptions. We power life in Arkansas by investing in projects that benefit the customer and support the economic growth across our great state.

What does this mean to Transmission?

As of July 2020, Entergy has roughly 30 executed Generator Interconnection Agreements in total across all four states for generating projects with in-service dates ranging from 2020 to 2023. These projects are predominately solar but also include wind and gas generators of various sizes and range in development – from placed in-service, to design and construction phase, and others waiting to be initiated.

Interconnection facilities typically involve building a new line bay position at an existing Entergy substation, or a new interconnection substation energized by an existing Entergy transmission line. For the new interconnection substations, the Interconnection Customer is provided the option to self-build, which allows for the customer to construct the standalone facilities and later transfer to Entergy ownership and control upon energization. While an Interconnection Customer may construct the interconnection substation, Entergy provides oversight throughout the entire project to ensure our design standards are met.

“Tremendous coordination is required to bring a generator interconnection project from concept to reality – it is no small feat, and, in all cases, the multi-year effort relies on the expertise and professionalism of the collective Entergy team,” said Chris Jones, manager, transmission project development. “This program is unique and in many ways is the intersection of several of our important transmission initiatives around continued business growth, investment in renewable generation, exceeding customer expectations and inclusive teamwork.”

In a roundtable discussion that included elected officials, coastal experts and industry representatives, an invited group of participants drilled down on how to keep home values up and negative stigma down in areas at high risk of sea level rise and other climate impacts.

According to flood inundation maps released by the real estate website, Zillow, close to one trillion dollars in real estate will be lost in America if seas rise six feet and, in a , sea levels are projected to rise one foot by the year 2030.

Val Marmillion, managing director of AWF, said, “A one-foot rise in only slightly more than a decade will have an incredible impact on Louisiana and coastal areas like Cameron. Taking actions to adapt to this projection is critical.”

Rick Johnson, director, sustainability and environmental strategy and policy said, “The work we are doing today can impact all of us along the Gulf Coast. It’s all about adaptation. As a company, we are always in the process of strengthening our infrastructure. We want the communities we serve to have reliable power and we’re investing heavily to make sure they do.”

Mark Hunter, transmission regulatory affairs coordinator, said, “A strong, resilient electric grid not only improves reliability for our customers but also creates jobs and economic growth for the communities in Southwest Louisiana.”

Cameron was all but devastated during Hurricane Rita and residents have worked for years to bring back the community. Since Rita, Southwest Louisiana and its leaders have made tremendous strides to build resiliency into governance and private sector growth.

In 2011, AWF and Entergy hosted a series of Blue-Ribbon Community Leadership forums that explored how coastal communities need to change to keep their areas prosperous and safe into the future. Southwest Louisiana was a key focus of those hearings, and the roundtable on November 6 in Cameron focused on the progress made since then. Southwest Louisiana is an area that can serve as a model for adaptation nationally upon the brink of challenges faced by coastal communities.

The UAS pilot program

In search of innovative solutions for inspections and patrols, Entergy’s transmission group developed a UAS pilot program to test the technology.

“After benchmarking utility peers and input from the , we knew the possible benefits of having engineers and field personnel use UAS as a tool on our system,” said Katie Robertson, transmission engineer and pilot program coordinator and participant. “The goal of the internal pilot program is to develop a standardized process to qualify and train transmission personnel to use this technology on our system in a controlled and safe manner.”

Robertson reached out to Dennis Lott, UAS program director at , located near Jackson, to develop a training program for employees. For the initial training, operation coordinators and engineers were nominated for the program, as these individuals have experience with inspections and responding to storms and outages.

Training

The employees in this program underwent intense training to receive their (FAA) certificates after completing a three day classroom training and sitting for the FAA exam. Prior to using UAS on the transmission system, an internal training requirement is in place for the pilots to perform an additional 20 hours of hands-on training, which is beyond FAA requirements.��

The training showed the engineers and operation coordinators a newer, safer approach to monitor transmission assets.

Dustin Cranford, transmission line supervisor in Arkansas, said, “There’s less exposure to right of way hazards with hazard identification when scoping for future jobs and storm response. We can use these for up close inspections on outages and trip/recloses. I believe as we work with these in the days to come we will find more applications and benefits of the drones.”

Echoing Cranford, Curtis Robertson, vegetation operations coordinator in Mississippi, said another safety benefit of utilizing the UAS technology is to “identify safety concerns related to a tree on the line that would not be visible any other way prior to sending tracked equipment in to remove the tree after the line has been grounded and tested.”

Robertson also suggested the team would be able to “conduct inspections in difficult to access locations due to terrain, which would reduce the potential for tripping hazards, snake and insect exposure, unknown water depths,” and other safety risks.

Next steps

Entergy’s transmission group currently has seven UASs for the operation coordinators and engineers to use across the system. The engineers will have a shared UAS with the ability to change the sensors to meet detailed reliability inspection needs. Participants in the pilot program will also look for opportunities to use their newly acquired skills and tools in their everyday jobs.

Lance Schumacher, a vegetation operations coordinator in Arkansas who is participating in the pilot program, commented on the opportunities for UAS in transmission.��

“The training opens your eyes to the airspace you are sharing and the responsibility that goes with it,” said Schumacher. “I believe we are just scratching the surface on how we will utilize the UAS on the job.”