Entergy 2006 Annual Report Download - page 17

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15
enerating and delivering electricity is a
unique business. Companies that provide
power are viewed and regulated as public
servants yet still must earn equitable returns for private
owners in order to attract capital. While the goals of
our various stakeholders can sometimes diverge, we
believe it is possible to operate our utilities in a way
that consistently meets the objectives of our
customers, regulators, communities and owners.
Customer Service, Reliability and Safety
Customer satisfaction is driven largely by the day-to-
day operation of our utility business; by maintaining
transmission lines, responding to customer calls and
safely providing power to meet fluctuating demands.
We continue to invest in our utilities to ensure we meet
our customers’ expectations for safe, reliable service.
In 2006 we began the year challenged by a
number of customer service issues related to the
storms of 2005. However, as we progressed through
the year our performance along a variety of customer
service and reliability measures continued to improve
as it has consistently over the past eight years. As of
year-end 2006, routine outage frequency decreased
48 percent and outage duration decreased 32 percent
over the eight-year period from 1998 to 2006.
Regulatory outage complaints dropped to 81 in
2006 from 535 in 1998.
In 2006, we were once again honored to receive
the Edison Electric Institute’s Emergency Assistance
Award. Entergy has won either EEI’s Emergency
Assistance or Emergency Response award for nine
consecutive years, every year that the awards have
been offered. We are the only utility in the country
to have achieved this recognition.
We also continued to make progress in ensuring
the safety of our employees. In 2006, seven of our
distribution sites and one transmission site earned
OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Star status –
bringing our total number of Star sites to 36 as of
the end of 2006. Another nine sites completed the
rigorous process of applying for OSHA VPP Star status
in 2006. Ensuring the safety of all employees in all our
operations continues to be our number one priority.
Affordable, Available Power
We strive to provide clean, reliable and affordable
power to all our customers over the long term.
Currently our customers’ demand for power exceeds
our generation capacity by two to four gigawatts. At
the same time, approximately 18 gigawatts of new
merchant capacity have been commissioned in our
service territories in the last six years. This provides
us with the opportunity to meet our capacity
shortfall as well as offer high-quality generation
sources to our customers.
Our Resource Supply Plan is designed to meet our
customers’ demand for power, diversify and modernize
our generation fleet and create opportunities to lower
our customers’ rates. It’s a comprehensive plan that
calls for the contract purchase of power, the acquisition
of highly efficient assets, as well as the evaluation of
new fuel and new capacity alternatives, conditioned
on the receipt of regulatory approval.
by safely generating and
delivering clean, reliable and affordable
power while structuring our utility business to
meet the objectives of all stakeholders.
ENTERGY CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES 2
2000066