Entergy 2004 Annual Report Download - page 14

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-12 -
Entergy Corporation and Subsidiaries 2004
BUILDING EXPERTISE
s
Weoperate our utility and nuclear businesses with an obsessive attention to detail. We stay on top of
the basics – the customer call well-answered, fuel savings that drive lower retail energy bills, and
intensive training. Operational expertise enables us to deliver excellent service, improve productivity,
and provide a sound design for lasting success.
fter making significant investments to
improve both customer service and
reliability, our utilities are now in
position to advocate positive new regulatory rate
structures and our Generation Supply Plan. Both
can deliver financial benefits to our customers and
shareholders, and we believe they present a well-
engineered model for growth in our utility business.
Customer Service and Reliability
The utilitybusiness requires a daily commitment
to the basics – customer calls that are well-answered,
generating plants that are well-operated and
maintained, along with transmission lines with
enough capacity and flexibility to meet our
customers’ varying demand for power. At Entergy,
we realizethat investing in the basics is the only way
to meet our customers’ expectations for reliable,
affordable service. With this as our operating
mentality, we have been able to improve consistently
each year on a variety of customer service and
reliability measures.
In 2004, we invested more than $1 billion of our
capital dollars in the utility business – a consistent
level of investment we have made since 1998. As a
result, we saw a 48 percent decrease in outage
frequency over this same period and a 39 percent
decrease in outage duration. Our regulatory outage
complaints dropped from 535 in 1998 to 81 in 2004,
adecrease of 85 percent.
Of special note in 2004 was the recognition
received by three of our distribution networks for
the safety of their operating environment. In 2004,
our Chalmette, New Orleans East, and Riverlake
East distribution networks achieved OSHA
Voluntary Protection Program Star status, OSHA’s
highest possible industrial safety rating for a work site.
While this recognition is a terrific achievement in
any case, it is especially noteworthy here because it
marks the first time any utility distribution network
has ever been recognized by OSHA with VPP Star
status. The safetyof our work environment and our
employees is vital to our ability to effectivelyserve
our customers.
Building Positive Rate Structures
In 2004, we pursued opportunities to recover past
investments and improve returns at Entergy
Louisiana, Entergy Gulf States – Louisiana, and
Entergy Gulf States – Texas.
Utility
Resourceful and Driven
A