Entergy 2003 Annual Report Download - page 12

This leadership is reflected in Entergy’s
commitment to meeting the needs of low-
income customers. In November 2003,
Entergy hosted more than 300 advocates for
the poor and elderly at our annual Low-Income
Customer Assistance Summit in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. We initiated the summit in 1999 as
a forum for national and regional low-income
experts and advocates to identify optional ways
we can better serve customers who have low
incomes. Previous summits have led to more than
$15 million in grants committed by Entergy to
assist low-income agencies.
Entergy demonstrated its leadership in
addressing energy industry issues with the
establishment of the Entergy-Tulane Energy
Institute, in conjunction with Tulane University.
This new center of excellence is dedicated to the
study of energy markets and institutions, and
the related issues of environmental and natural
resource management.
In a review of corporate governance at
2,100 companies, Entergy was one of 22
companies worldwide that received a score of
10.0, the highest rating possible. The ratings
by GovernanceMetrics International were
released in February 2004.
Entergy is committed to reliable customer service 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year. In the past five years, Entergy’s utilities
have made major upgrades to reliability, building a foundation
for constructive regulatory relations. Service reliability has
improved, as the average frequency and duration of outages
have both declined by over 45 percent. Customer reliability
complaints have fallen by almost 90 percent since 1998.
We’ve also taken steps to make sure that our utility
generating plants are ready to serve customers.
Forced outages at utility fossil plants have been
cut in half in the past five years. And we’ve made
significant investments in Entergy’s
transmission system to guard against the
kind of blackout experienced by the
Northeast in 2003. Entergy’s system has
achieved a 65 percent improvement in
the transmission service index, a
measure of grid reliability, since 1998.
In November 1925, the Louisiana Power Company –
which had been formed to take advantage of
abundant natural gas found in the state – opened
the 30,000-kilowatt Sterlington Station, the
largest power plant south of St. Louis. In
those days the electric microphone was
changing the nature of vocal
musical performance, and one
of the last popular singers
to project her
powerful voice
without the aid
of amplification
was Bessie Smith. Her
debut recording of
“Gulf Coast Blues”
in 1923 sold
750,000 copies.
ENTERGY CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES 2003