To accomplish this, Entergy New Orleans deployed a highly specialized bare-hand crew to complete the work—an elite team of linemen trained to safely repair high-voltage, energized transmission lines. Keeping the lines energized during upgrades prevents power outages and ensures substations continue operating under normal, stable conditions.

The team recently completed work on a major transmission line in New Orleans, replacing older insulators on 26 towers with stronger, more modern equipment. Working in coordination with distribution and vegetation management teams, they also replaced aging wooden cross arms and cleared overgrown vegetation. This collaborative approach enhances both transmission and distribution reliability across the New Orleans service area.

Additional work is underway in New Orleans East, where the bare-hand crew is replacing insulators on several water-crossing circuits. The crew is scheduled to complete critical upgrades on the Michoud–Front transmission line crossing over Lake Pontchartrain. This line provides a vital interconnection between Entergy and Cleco and serves as an emergency power source for the New Orleans grid. These enhancements will significantly strengthen the electrical grid and improve regional reliability.

“These types of upgrades help prevent potential issues and keep the power flowing safely,” said Kenyon Stipe, transmission line supervisor at Entergy New Orleans. “Upgrading our equipment reduces the chance of outages and helps ensure reliable service for our customers.”

This work would not be possible without the expertise and collaboration of key personnel and partners. North Houston Pole Line provided experienced contract support. Linh Tran, Grid Engineer; Josh Rollins, Transmission OC; Kenyon Stipe Sr., Transmission Line Supervisor; and Frank Morse, Senior Manager of Transmission Lines, all played vital roles in planning and execution. The Tulane Network also contributed valuable support to the project’s success.

By completing this work with energized lines and minimizing disruption, Entergy New Orleans continues to meet its promise of delivering safe, reliable power to its customers.

What’s a power grid?

A power grid, also referred to as an electrical grid, is a network of generation, transmission and distribution systems that help deliver electricity to homes and businesses. The United States power grid is separated into three regions: the Eastern, Western, and Texas Interconnections. Within each of these three regions, there are interconnected local electricity grids.

Which grid helps power the Entergy Texas service area?

While most Texans are connected to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power grid, Entergy Texas, along with a few other utilities in Southeast Texas, operates in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (or MISO) power grid. ��MISO is a regional transmission organization that helps provide reliable, cost-effective delivery of electricity to 15 U.S. states and one Canadian province. ��MISO manages the flow of power between and among local grids across this vast region and moves energy around based on need—they liken it to the role of air traffic controllers. Entergy Texas works alongside MISO to maintain a careful balance of electricity demand with available supply from resources located throughout Southeast Texas and beyond. Both MISO and Entergy Texas play important roles in ensuring that the right amount of electricity is generated and transmitted, and that reliability is maintained. ��

What Texas counties are connected to the MISO power grid?

In partnership with MISO, Entergy Texas helps provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable power to 27 counties in the southeastern part of Texas. Those counties are:

How does being connected to the MISO grid benefit customers?��
Entergy Texas customers have saved more than $475 million on electric bills since the company joined MISO in 2013. Because MISO directs the dispatch of a pool of generation to serve the needs of all customers in its footprint, the dispatch is more efficient, resulting in a lower delivered cost of energy and long-term benefits for customers.

For more information on MISO, visit . To learn more about how Entergy Texas is investing to build a stronger, more reliable and resilient grid, visit here.

Recently, Entergy partnered with the news website Axios for an inaugural event marking the online publication’s expansion into the New Orleans media market. During the program, Entergy Chairman and CEO Drew Marsh joined key New Orleans leaders and policymakers to discuss best strategies to modernize the United States power grid, accelerate the clean energy transition and improve energy reliability and resilience.

The program also featured New Orleans City Council President Jean-Paul Morrell, United Way of Southeast Louisiana President and CEO Michael Williamson, and The Beach at UNO President and CEO Rebecca Conwell.

The kicked off with Councilmember Morrell as he touched on the importance of selecting a plan that improves grid resiliency while keeping it affordable for our customers and communities.

“As a Councilperson, as a regulator, we have to select a plan that both improves and makes the grid more resilient without making it impossible to be able to pay your utility bill and live here.”

Marsh agreed and highlighted how the needs of the power grid today have evolved since the infrastructure was first put in place decades ago.

“The world has changed,” said Marsh. “We talk about 25 years ago, but if you go back to when I was a kid, most of the grid is — as Councilmember Morrell was explaining — it’s been around for a long, long time. The standards to which it was constructed or built were for that point in time.”

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He added that there’s a significant investment required for strengthening the power grid since much of the existing infrastructure has to be replaced because it’s not built to modern standards.

Marsh also touched on the importance of hardening the power grid to allow us to better respond to more frequent and stronger storms, while balancing affordability and reliability for our customers and communities.

“Reliability, affordability and sustainability – that is another key element to it,” said Marsh. “And we are focused on all three of those aspects. That’s top of mind for us all the time.”

All of the speakers emphasized the importance of having this conversation now – to ensure our power grid and infrastructure is resilient, affordable, secure and can withstand future weather. Marsh emphasized by discussing and addressing the challenges and vulnerabilities of our power grid, our city leaders can continue to develop effective strategies to ensure a sustainable energy future for our communities.

Marsh added that Entergy is partnering and collaborating with policymakers, both here in Louisiana and in Washington, D.C., to enhance the grid and the importance of working with key leaders to build a cleaner, more resilient and sustainable energy future.

“It is very partnership oriented. We are working together to try and find solutions [for our customers’ benefit],” said Marsh.

Learn about our Entergy Future Ready plan here.

JACKSON, Miss. – Entergy Mississippi launched a project last year to accelerate the replacement of existing wooden transmission structures with steel or concrete poles, with the goal of replacing all wooden poles in 12-15 years. The replacement of the wood structures represents the majority of a $28 million annual investment Entergy Mississippi is making to harden the grid. So far, more than 1,000 aged wood structures have been replaced.

“Our customers and communities depend on us to deliver reliable service,” said Shawn Corkran, vice president of reliability, Entergy Mississippi. “We study and invest in modernizing and strengthening our grid to ensure our customers have the power they need when they need it. This involves not just replacing aging infrastructure, but also updating our equipment with materials that improve our resiliency.”

The transmission system is the backbone of the electric grid. The company produces power in the most efficient and reliable manner possible, then sends the electricity that has been generated across transmission lines to reach the distribution lines that bring power to customers’ homes and businesses. The structures carry high-voltage electricity quickly over long distances to reach the distribution lines that, in turn, serve 461,000 customers in Entergy Mississippi’s service area.

These high-voltage lines and the structures holding them are a crucial part of the grid, so maintaining them is an essential part of Entergy Mississippi’s work. Wooden poles were once the standard material for transmission structures. However, today steel and concrete poles are preferred for reliability.

“We identified wooden transmission structures in need of replacement across the state,” said Corkran. “With these upgraded structures, we can provide a more hardened, reliable system for our customers and reduce the length of outages caused by transmission wood pole failures.”

Additional crews were brought on the system for the execution of the incremental work to replace the structures holding the lines, which will fortify the grid; these additional crews will also be available to help restore damaged transmission lines, improving the restoration times during unplanned outages or outages that may occur during storms. An investment in infrastructure now pays dividends in fewer outages and lower bills for customers today and in the decades to come.

About Entergy Mississippi

Entergy Mississippi, LLC provides electricity to approximately 461,000 customers in 45 counties. Entergy Mississippi is a subsidiary of ���ϳԹ���, a Fortune 500 electric company. Entergy powers life for 3 million customers through our operating companies in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. We’re investing in the reliability and resilience of the energy system while helping our region transition to cleaner, more efficient energy solutions. With roots in our communities for more than , Entergy is a nationally recognized leader in sustainability and corporate citizenship. Since 2018, we have delivered more than $100 million in economic benefits each year to local communities through philanthropy, volunteerism and advocacy. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has approximately 12,000 employees. For the latest news from Entergy, visit the .

GridEx IV is a two-day exercise conducted by the where more than 400 organizations with more than 6,000 participants from across the and respond to simulated coordinated cyber and physical attacks that damage the bulk power system and cause widespread outages.

“Our participation in this exercise will allow us to test and strengthen our emergency procedures and processes while finding opportunities to improve our response so that we can continue to execute on our promise to deliver power and gas safely and reliably for the benefit of our customers,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Hinnenkamp, who��participated in the exercise.

Entergy CEO Leo Denault (left) discussing GridEx IV with Director of Incident Response Louis Dabdoub (right).

Throughout the two-day exercise, Entergy employees in transmission, system planning, the utility and power generation responded to what some would say would far surpass your worst day at the office, with participation from employees in corporate support functions, information technology, physical and cyber security, federal and governmental affairs, incident response, safety, customer support and communications. The simulated events included coordinated physical attacks on Entergy assets, outages for more than 400,000 customers in one service area, a loss of communications and business systems misinformation and more.

“Our team responded with full engagement and exercised our plans, thinking through the best way to handle each situation that came their way,” said Director of Incident Response Louis Dabdoub. “The work done by Maurice Rieffel and the other members of our planning team months ahead of the exercise really paid off. I am confident we will be able to tackle the lessons learned from this exercise to further strengthen Entergy’s response.”

Director of Incident Response Louis Dabdoub reviewing details on GridEx.

For several months before the exercise a group of 42 employees, led by Incident Response Manger Maurice Rieffel, worked to make the scenario as real as possible by developing the various injects the players would receive throughout the exercise.

While the exercise may be over, the work still continues as the groups who participated capture their lessons learned and work to improve our process and Entergy’s overall ability to successfully respond to events that may affect our energy infrastructure.

See other coverage of the event from industry partners and government organizations.