Entergy 2003 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2003 Entergy annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 92

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92

Reliability, Safety, and Service
Entergy’s utilities continually work to
improve reliability, safety, and service to our
customers and communities.
In 2003, measures of the average
frequency and duration of outages improved
12 percent each, from the previous year.
Customer complaints to regulators declined
by 35 percent.
We reduced the number of employee lost-
time accidents by 12 percent, from 34 in 2002
to 30 in 2003. Ten Entergy generating plants
have earned Voluntary Protection Program
Star status from the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration for protecting
employees’ health and safety, with the
Pilgrim and Nelson plants added in 2003.
For the fifth consecutive year, Entergy was
named by the nation’s retail chains for
offering the best overall customer service in
the Edison Electric Institute’s annual
Customer Service Awards. And in a 2003
survey of the nation’s largest energy users,
Entergy ranked seventh in overall customer
service among 61 utilities, up from 21st the
year before.
Entergy’s overarching financial goal is to achieve and maintain
returns to shareholders that rank in the top quartile of our
peer group each year – and to rank first in our industry in
long-term total shareholder return. In 2003, Entergy was
honored by the Edison Electric Institute for achieving this goal
over the past five years, providing the highest return among
all large-cap companies included in EEI’s Index of Shareholder-
Owned Electric Utilities.
From year-end 1998 through 2003,
Entergy returned over $2.5 billion in
cash to shareholders, through both
dividends and a stock repurchase.
This amount is equivalent to
70 percent of earnings over the
five-year period. In July 2003,
Entergy’s Board of Directors
raised the dividend 29 percent
to $1.80 per share on an
annual basis.
ENTERGY CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES 2003
During the Depression in the 1930s, many utility
customers had to discontinue service, and utilities
faced severe financial pressures. But all of the
utilities that make up Entergy survived
intact, while a number of major
utilities did not. At that same
time, jazz performers were
reaching listeners coast to
coast through radio and the
“modern” jukebox. Movies with
sound allowed audiences nationwide
to see and hear musicians such as
Louis Armstrong and Duke
Ellington. The first commercially
successful electric guitar, the “Frying
Pan,” went into production in 1931.