Entergy 2002 Annual Report Download - page 13

ENTERGY CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES 2002 11
Entergy has improved the
reliability of the electric
service we provide our
customers. Key measures
of reliability – the average
duration and the average
frequency of outages –
have improved 41 percent
and 44 percent since
Entergy refocused on
customer service in 1998.
RECOGNITION
Service to Customers
For the fourth year in a
row, national energy
customers selected Entergy
as one of the electric utility
companies offering the
best overall customer
service. Entergy is the only
utility to have its national
accounts program honored
every year since the Edison
Electric Institute established
the award in 1998.
n our utility business, a “back to basics”
focus on customer service, reliability, and
safety has led to improved regulatory
relationships. Now we’re moving beyond the
basics, with innovative proposals for incentive-
based regulation that may provide Entergy
the opportunity to share in the benefits of
superior efficiency and service.
Sustained improvement
in utility performance
In the past year, Entergy customer satisfaction
continued to improve. In the 2002 J.D. Power
Residential Benchmark Study, Entergy’s
customer satisfaction score increased by 10
points, from 93 to 103. The study noted that
“Entergy is the most improved utility in the
South Region,” moving up to rank 27th of 74
utilities surveyed. Customer complaints to
regulators also continued to decline in 2002.
To maintain the gains we’ve made in reliability,
we continued to invest in our distribution system.
We also beefed up preventive maintenance at all
of our fossil plants.
In addition, we’ve brought generating units
out of mothball to help ensure that we can
meet demand. We use these plants just to meet
peak loads when the market price for power is
too high. That means we don’t have to pay to
reserve capacity in others’ plants, and our
customers won’t get hit with astronomical power
prices if there is a short-term shortage.
IITA
Serving low-income customers – In
2002, Entergy continued to focus on serving our
low-income customers – good customers who
contribute over $600 million annually to
Entergy’s revenues. At our fourth annual Low-
Income Customer Assistance Summit in 2002,
we met with more than 250 advocates for the
poor and elderly from around our region.
Entergy has been an outspoken advocate of
the federal Low-Income Home Energy and
Weatherization Assistance Programs. We have
worked to supplement these under-funded
federal programs by encouraging state officials
to create permanent funds to help low-income
customers with their energy needs.
Following a determined effort by a statewide
coalition that included Entergy Louisiana, the
Louisiana State Legislature took the first step
with an appropriation providing $1 million for
weatherization activities and transferring
$3 million of federal Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families funding to energy bill payment
assistance for the next fiscal year.
Industry policy – We’re also outspoken
on issues related to industry restructuring. For
instance, as the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission is considering elements of market
design that need to be standardized to facilitate
competitive wholesale markets, Entergy
continues to advocate the use of locational
marginal pricing and financial transmission
rights to manage the congestion on the
transmission system and the use of participant
funding for expanding the transmission grid.
Entergy believes these elements are critical to
developing more efficient wholesale markets.
Nonetheless, Entergy does not believe that
it is necessary or useful for FERC to assert
jurisdiction over the transmission rate
component for bundled retail customers as
part of this effort to create a more competitive
wholesale energy market.
Environment – Entergy continues to
support strong environmental policy, as we deliver
on our commitment to stabilize greenhouse gas
emissions from our domestic power plants.
As of year-end 2002, 26 greenhouse gas
reduction projects were completed or under
way at Entergy. We also initiated 10 projects to
remove CO2from the atmosphere or reduce
greenhouse gases from sources we don’t own
or operate. The total investment of $10 million is
forecast to reduce 1.5 million tons of
CO2-equivalent emissions by the end of 2005.
Outage Duration
(average minutes
per customer per year)
98 99 00 01 02
278
229
172 162 164
Outage Frequency
(average number
per customer per year)
98 99 00 01 02
3.5
2.6
2.2 2.1 2.0
UTILITY: BEYOND THE BASICS